


Sankhara

by Lacertae



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Developing Friendships, Explosions, Family, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Meditation, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, Nuclear Weapons, Omnic Racism, Omnics, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Personal Growth, Post-Omnic Crisis, Robots, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-09-13 18:17:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 52,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9135763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: The path he chose might be paved with grief and insecurity, but he never had to travel alone.---Or: A Zenyatta-centric backstory piece, from his first meeting with Mondatta to his time at the Shambali monastery, following his growth as an omnic monk, his meeting with Genji, up until his decision to join Overwatch with him. Canon Compliant.





	1. Chapter 01 - Kalyana mitta

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first attempt at Overwatch fanfic, as I noticed the lack of any Zenyatta backstory, so I decided to make one myself.
> 
> This story will have three main arcs. The first and current one deals with Zenyatta and Mondatta's first meeting, and will end when Zenyatta joins the Shambali monastery. The second arc will be a little time-skip ahead, and deal with his growth as a monk and learning how to use omnic energy and interface with the Iris. The third arc will deal with Genji, and the way those two characters interact and learn from each other. When this time comes, it might or might not dip into romance, but the pace and importance of their relationship as mentor/student takes priority over anything romantic. I hope you understand. (if sequels happen though there will be romance there)
> 
> I'd like to thank my friends Uume and Kirsten for their unwavering support and for listening me rant for hours about omnics and this fic in particular.
> 
> This fanfic will have a lot of my personal headcanons, so I hope you will enjoy reading it! If you do, consider leaving kudos or comments, thank you! Happy new year!

**Chapter 01: Kalyana mitta**

 

The sound of water sloshing gently against the stones of the bridge was almost completely drowned out by the louder noise of human voices.

In this part of the city, the streets were narrow and slithery, edging lower towards the water’s surface before sneaking upwards again, splitting into many smaller, invisible side alleys. Decorated statues and red paper lanterns seemed to be a common sight, as much as the carved figures of dragons that stretched from one side of the bridge to the other, teeth bared and mouths open wide.

On the left, trees planted in the middle of the water stream reached upwards towards the sky, roots protected by small mounds of soil and rocks, while on the right row after row of buildings, decorated with wooden balconies and ornate fences, offered him a peculiar and pleasant view.

With the sun slowly inching lower in the sky, tinging the clouds, the buildings and the stone pavement with a vivid orange hue, the city of Lijiang seemed to melt into something otherworldly.

Although the modern part of the city was alive and bubbling with people, it seemed like the area of the Old Town was the noisier one, more so as dawn approached. Lijiang attracted tourists from all over China –and just as many foreigners who travelled this far, sticking out like sore thumbs among the natives– and ever since the Lucheng Interstellar corporation had built its massive tower in the middle of the city, the tourists had split between the more traditional section, the Old Town, and the newer attractions in the modern districts. The Lijiang Tower was built near the local Night Market, which attracted its fair share of tourists due to the variety of foods it sold, while the Old Town had a good amount of bars where rowdier people would band together to drink and enjoy the view of the waterways, bridges chaining together the entire area like pearls on a beautiful collier.

If non-Chinese foreigners were not as unusual nowadays –unlike how things had been in the earlier decades of the 2000’s– they were still noticeable in the city streets, especially in the Old Town district, and easily spotted from afar, but even less common was the sight of omnics, so one of them walking through the streets, his metallic body tinged orange under the setting  sun, was enough to cause turmoil.

The years following the end of the Omnic War had brought a slow change, and most towns, especially in rural areas with little to no contact with technology, still lived under the impression that the less omnics around the best it would be for everybody, while bigger cities hosted a small, somewhat growing number of omnic population. Unfortunately, despite the stilted attempts to reconcile the ideas that omnic were no more a danger to humans, most people still looked at them with mistrust, and very few places around the world allowed robots to have rights, let alone considered them equal to human citizens.

Russia still had a high-aggression policy towards omnics, and while China varied greatly depending on the area, it still had a very low tolerance, to the point where even in cities like Lijiang they were offered little to no respect. Despite the advantages technology offered to life, few omnics could find ways to live normally, or be accepted. The rate of human-on-omnic violence was still far too high, and guards and local police officers appeared uncaring and unwilling to get involved.

In this state of unrest, it was not surprising that omnics who chose to stay had banded together and lived in lesser populated parts of the city, using numbers to ensure their continued survival, and it was a rare occurrence to spot them walking around in broad daylight… even less on their own.

The omnic was walking slowly down one of the main streets of Lijiang’s Old Town, unmindful of the stares and the attention he was receiving. His footsteps kept a careful, even tempo, wooden sandals clacking against the stone pavement as he walked. He was wearing an unusual attire, a long pale tunic draped on one half of his body and loosely tied around his midsection that fluttered to the ground, heavy and covered with intricate geometric designs. The visible parts of his body were a washed out white, with a golden mouth piece and bolts that glinted in the sunlight, and there was an array of nine sensors flaring with blue lights on his forehead.

It was obvious the model was not a new one, the paint chipped off in some parts of the chest area and the back of his head, but it was just as obvious that he kept his parts in pristine condition.

Another striking detail was that the omnic was not wearing all of his outer plates; the protective covers that usually hid the circuits and wires from sight and kept them safe from the elements were absent, exposing the delicate circuitry underneath for all to see. It was unusual, but the humans peering at him did not truly understand what this meant –unfamiliar with omnics as most of them were, much of their knowledge was second-hand at best, and had more to do with what to do in case of a ‘rabid omnic attack’ than anything useful. As it was, the sight of delicate circuits was nothing if not perplexing, especially in an area where omnic violence was usually condoned.

As the omnic made his way down the street, ignoring the chattering that his passage caused, the tourists and the locals watched him go with a growing unease, unused to the sight of an omnic without explanation. It did not matter that the omnic looked uninterested and unassuming –it was still a jarring reminder of their existence, and it caused people to talk, curiosity mixing with uneasiness.

As the omnic approached one of the bigger bridges he seemed to pause for a split second, head tilted to the side as if to admire the carved animals stretching from one side of the bridge to the other.

The moment of contemplation only lasted for a few seconds before he moved again, quickly passing through the bridge and disappeared from sight behind the corner of a building, but the hushed, intrigued gossip swept through the area like a ripple in the water, people hesitating before finally looking away.

Lijiang’s Old Town had been labelled as a World Heritage Site more than fifty years prior, carefully monitored and preserved by the Yunnan Prefecture and by UNESCO, and that meant a tighter security around the entire area, the influx of tourists attracting enough attention that the Prefecture had wanted to control the businesses and the establishments of the touristic area. Due to that, there were numerous patrols day and night, especially in the bar area, so the unnerving presence of a lone, suspicious omnic walking so brazenly through the city was bound to be noticed quickly and dealt with –either by police or through lesser ‘legal’ means.

With this knowledge keeping people from panicking just at the sight of an omnic, the tourists and the locals were able to relax and focus on gossiping, wondering what would happen to the omnic and if they would read about it the next day in the local news.

Soon enough, though, they lost interest –night was already approaching.

***

Tekhartha Mondatta had reached the outskirts of Lijiang earlier that afternoon.

It had not been his intention to stop by this city –it was big and touristic, and Mondatta had been trying to avoid such places, focusing on the smaller towns and the suburbs and rural settings that seemed to need his presence more– but he had found his footsteps headed this way, and before he could take notice of where he was going the sea of rooftops was already spread in front of him.

He had been taking a long, spinning road through the hills until then, seeing mostly wild nature, grass and trees for the past few days, so he found the sight of Lijiang pleasant, the expanse of dark rooftops stretching as far as the eye could see. It was a city that had managed, through time, to keep within a traditional core, despite the modern buildings and the tall Tower standing proudly above the rest, a skyscraper compared to the traditional tilt of the rooftops around it.

Mondatta had tilted his head in consideration, and as he had pondered whether to move forwards or take the long route around the city, a police car had passed by him, the driver casting him a suspicious look before disappearing past the first few houses.

Patiently considering what to do, Mondatta had almost turned around, and then…

There had been a flicker of _something_ in the air, an electric sparkle of ions that tickled the back of his circuits like a feather, and Mondatta was familiar enough with this gentle, soft nudge not to follow what humans commonly called their sixth sense.

He had moved forwards, his feet bringing him down the dusty road and into the busy streets of Lijiang.

Despite his intentions, instead of sticking to the residential area or trying to locate the part of the city where omnics lived Mondatta found his feet taking him past the Night Market and the Garden, barely sparing a glance to the Lijiang Tower and the streets full of people, and into the Old Town.

The waterways and the bridges had been a welcome, pleasant sight for him, the beauty of the architecture of the city not lost on him as he paused every now and then to admire a particularly beautiful tree or archway, the sensors on his forehead flashing brightly in what passed for an omnic smile.

He had no real direction or destination, as Mondatta had no idea what had brought him to the city or what he would need to do there, but the lingering warmth of the Iris at the back of his mind was a familiar touch, and it reassured him that his presence there had a meaning that he would not question.

It was the constant nudge of the Iris, warm and golden and insistent, the reason why Mondatta had abandoned the Shambali monastery, months earlier, to start a new journey. The tranquil life at the monastery brought him great peace, but it did not help the omnics and the humans who suffered outside, and if he could not do his part to reach out to them, it would be a poor use of his enlightenment.

Although not many of the Shambali monks could reach within to touch the Iris, allowing it to flow through them to heighten their senses, those who could rarely reported the kind of intimate contact Mondatta had always felt with it. Whether it was a particular glitch of his matrix, or a testament of his own determination to change things since his awakening, he could not say. Perhaps, as it was, the Iris had simply picked a vessel, and all he could do was be its voice.

The receptors built on his neck sensed the air cooling down as the sun continued its slow descent in the sky, and Mondatta briefly considered finding a safe place to spend the night to recharge.

His calm pace brought him past another bridge as he continued his idle walk. The street in front of him opened up on both sides, wooden buildings covered with plants and a restaurant menu proudly displayed at his right; a boardwalk connected the two sides of the street, water sloshing quietly under the wooden planks, and Mondatta allowed himself another brief pause, eyes observing his surroundings.

As an omnic, the only need for nourishment he required was that to recharge his internal core, which could be done almost anywhere, and even without a charger present he could still regain power through natural, alternative means, but food had always attracted his interest for more than purely aesthetical reasons.

Humans required food as more than just a basic need –composition, preparation, variety… that kind of thing was always a fascinating subject.

Pondering over the bright images of local food printed on the menu board, surrounded by human voices talking and laughing with one another, Mondatta almost missed the soft sound of something heavy falling somewhere in his vicinity, but his sharp sensors picked the sound up and analysed it, subroutine processes categorizing the noise and sending an alert through his receptors and to his brain.

More noises, a chatter of human voices mixed with laughter, coming from the same direction, different from the rest of the noise, and he found himself focusing on it. The timber of the voices was not one of joy, though they were too far for Mondatta to distinguish what they were saying, and he recalibrated his auricular receptors to a higher setting, though all for nothing –the voices were too far.

Mondatta took a few steps in the direction of the noises almost on a whim, right sleeve fluttering as he brought both arms together in front of his chest, sensors whirring softly.

There was a narrow backstreet right behind the restaurant, unlit and empty. He could see bins full of trash and leftovers, some of them scattered on the ground, and if he had been a human the stench of rotten fish and fruits would have been overpowering, but as it was he could disable his receptors, isolating his brain from the stench. The wooden sandals he wore clacked softly against the ground, one sole hitting an empty can as he walked past it, the echoes of the sound rattling in the silence. Shadows hung longer, and the sensors in Mondatta’s eyes adjusted his sight infinitesimally, bringing his surroundings back to a sharp contrast despite the setting sun. He did not pause nor hesitate as he walked further into the side street, sensors vibrating in anticipation.

Another noise, this time louder, followed by the sound of fizzling electronics and human laughter, clearer now, and closer. A mocking jeer, then an insult and more laughter. Mondatta’s shoulders tensed up at that, the wires in his arms realigning in preparation for… something.

The narrow backstreet ended sharply with a corner, and Mondatta stepped into a small, constricting back alley, with tall brown walls on every side.

It took his optic sensors a fraction of a second to zoom on the cause of the noises, and when they did, he had to stop at the sight.

There were three humans on the other end of the alley, standing around something that Mondatta could not see from where he was, and they were all turned away from him, not having noticed his arrival yet. Two of the humans were laughing, the mocking bark of their laughter echoing from one side of the alley to the other, the sound amplified enough to sound ominous. Their clothes were modern, street ones, not unlike many of the humans Mondatta had passed by earlier during his walk, hair cut short as was common. By a quick estimate, they looked young, barely through their second decade of life.

The third human was taller than the others, and held himself with a different countenance, though all Mondatta could see of him was his back, and was dressed in a more traditional garb, the hem of his clothes sewn with golden thread.

Mondatta could not see their faces, but it was obvious they were focused on something in front of them, and they were mocking whatever it was, taunting it. Mondatta felt a twinge of disappointment hum into his core, the sight familiar to him enough that he could guess what he would see if he stepped closer.

He did not hesitate and moved forwards, the sound of his footsteps muffled by the continuous, raucous laughter of the humans’ and by their taunts, which Mondatta could now hear too clearly –words full of distaste and mockery, jeers of superiority and half-barked slurs that caused Mondatta’s auricular receptors to glitch in shock.

With the three humans’ attention so focused in front of them, Mondatta’s quiet footsteps brought him close enough that he could see what they were looking at, and then the twisted charge of static glitched into something deeper, and far less quiet.

Sprawled over half-ripped trash bags, body half submerged by leftovers, was an omnic. He looked battered and dirty, and though Mondatta could not say much about him, he could see that his model was newer than Mondatta’s, though similar in make. By all intents and purposes, the omnic could not be older than a decade, perhaps even less than that. There were dents all over his upper body, with pieces of his chest plates broken or bent to expose the delicate wires underneath, and he was missing his mouth piece, the lower part of his face showing signs of burn marks and of a damaged voice box. Mondatta’s optical sensors zoomed in on his hands, a flutter of unease when he realised the other omnic was missing at least two fingers from his right hand, most of the lower arm looking like it had been grinded into a pulp of metal and circuits.

The worst though were the legs. The wires and sensors connecting the legs from the knee down had been crudely cut and severed, and the remaining cables and circuits were poking through the back of his knees, wriggling as current ran through them, ending nowhere.

Mondatta’s sensors buzzed and hummed, registering his own shock at the sight, pity and desolation thrumming through his chest as his processors assessed the overall health of his fellow omnic, subroutines keeping an eye on the three humans too, assessing their overall attention, heart-rate and other minor details.

There was no need for heightened senses to feel the satisfaction and pride radiating from the humans, and even Mondatta felt a wave of aching pain at the proof that they were the cause of his fellow omnic’s pain, and not just bystanders who had happened to pass by.

One of them was holding something, but it was only when the humans realized there was someone else behind them and turned around, suddenly tense and wary, that Mondatta saw what it was –a small dao, drenched in what appeared to be slick, dark oil.

Mondatta felt another wave of pity fill his sensors, body aching in empathy –the omnic’s voice box had been damaged so he would be unable to talk, probably on purpose, but he could still communicate through basic binary code and other sounds, and the continuous static sound coming from him, amplified as it was to Mondatta’s auricular receptors, was not unlike a constant, agonized whimper.

The omnic was in obvious pain, but was still lucid.

At the sight of Mondatta’s unassuming stance, the three humans seemed to relax. They had perhaps expected to be found by other humans, possibly by one of the police patrols, and quickly dismissed Mondatta as non-threatening due to his apparent submissive stance.

In truth, Mondatta was tall for an omnic of his built, a few of the parts he had replaced time after time belonging to newer, slightly bigger models, which made him look taller and lean. It was mostly his posture that seemed to convey a very different impression.

“Look, Jing-sheng, there’s another one!” one of the younger men spoke up, eyes flickering to the man in traditional clothes before he returned his full attention to Mondatta, not wanting to look away. He spoke in a distinctive _Huguang_ dialect, thick and heavy on his tongue.

“Do we get to play around with it, too?” the second man’s voice was deeper, indicating he was older, or just pretending to be, and he had the same dialect as the first. He looked at Mondatta with barely concealed glee, and Mondatta allowed himself a soft, displeased hum. “I have plenty energy left for some more fun”.

The third man, Jing-sheng, casually took a step back from the wounded omnic to turn around and face Mondatta. He was older than his two companions, with a fuzzy moustache above his lips, which were pulled into a grimace; unlike the other two, he did not appear pleased at the interruption, and yet Mondatta could feel the same distaste and anticipation in his stance, albeit concealed better.

With all three men turned to look at him, Mondatta’s secondary scanners could focus on collecting more details about who he had in front of him; the clothes the younger men were wearing had dirty stains and spots that looked fresh, while Jing-sheng’s appearance was pristine. He was standing on the side, almost as if wanting to keep separate from the other two, and it did not take a genius to declare him as the boss.

Mondatta would need to engage with him if he wanted to help that poor omnic.

Still, that would have to wait –Mondatta’s main scans were returning worrisome results from his fellow omnic, so instead of speaking with the humans, Mondatta chose to send a quick inquiry to him, a soft whirring noise and a steady set of binary beeps barely loud enough to be heard by non-robotic ears.

The answer was a gasp of pain in the form of a burst of white noise, glitch sounds repeated without rhythm or pattern and followed by a clipped, pained plea for Mondatta to leave.

‘Go,’ the omnic pleaded, what was left of his outer sensors beeping hurriedly. ‘Not worth it. Leave’.

To have to resort to basic vocabulary in binary meant the omnic’s main processes were being shut down to preserve what was left of his matrix and circuit data, or perhaps that the pain receptors were frying what was left of it. Either way, Mondatta could tell there was not much time left.

Even then, part of Mondatta’s operating circuits ached at the knowledge that the omnic was apparently more worried for Mondatta’s safety than his own state of being.

The man called Jing-sheng shifted, distracting Mondatta and snapping his focus on him. “What are you staring at, _robot_? Know your place”.

The man did not speak Chinese, which was surprising considering his two companions, but the local dialect _Lijiangba_. If Mondatta had to take a careful guess, he expected this was some sort of power show, but he did not know what it entailed, so he chose to ignore whatever undertones the man was conveying and instead replied in Mandarin.

“I would ask you what you intend to do now,” he said, modulating his voice to be pleasant and even.

His reply was an ugly sneer, but Jing-sheng’s tone remained oily polite. “I fail to see how that might be of any interest to you, omnic _shit_ ,” he replied, and this time he used Mandarin as well, foregoing the dialect he had used before. The insult, delivered smoothly and without any particular inflection, was jarring enough that even the wounded omnic was startled.

With a panicked sound that glitched and fractured into static, the yet nameless omnic struggled to push himself up, trying to stand.

He managed to sit up, but then his fingerless hand slipped on the bags under him, upsetting his body enough that he slipped sideways and fell back down, the hit jarring the open wounds of his legs.

The pained wail that vibrated through his chest like a low hum and the sound of metal against stone attracted the attention of the two human goons, who instantly turned away from Mondatta to focus again on their victim.

“Stay down with the trash where you belong,” the taller of the two barked out, lips pulled into a wide, pleased smirk, and he took a step forwards to tower over the omnic.

Mondatta tensed up, expecting the situation to escalate further, but Jing-sheng cleared his throat and his henchmen stopped to stare at him, openly uneasy.

Their behaviour was enough to reassure Mondatta that the obvious display was meant to show off his power to him, and he ended two minor subroutines in order to focus most of his sensors on Jing-sheng, though he still kept some of them running in case things went downhill.

It would not do to open himself to attack. There could still be a way to reason with them.

“You could find that turning away and leaving right now might be the best chance you have,” Jing-sheng said. Mondatta’s keen auricular receptors caught the teasing, mocking tone with no trouble. “I might find myself overly indulgent with a foreigner, even if it’s omnic shit, if it knows its place and makes a hasty departure”.

Mondatta tilted his head forwards, the shadows cast on his face giving him an appearance of desolation. “I must disagree,” he said, and made a show of turning his head towards the other omnic. “It seems that, albeit unrelated to the matters at hand, I still am involved just by witnessing this unjustified aggression”.

The two goons snorted at the same time, while Jing-sheng’s only reaction was a thin stretch of his lips.

“I should have known you automats would band together, not enough circuits to know when to listen to your betters,” the steely edge of his voice seemed to cut through the tense air like a sharp knife, and his Mandarin bled with the tilt of his local accent. “I guess like minds are brought together to learn a lesson of respect”.

One of the goons cracked his knuckles, the other lifted both fists in a fighting pose, though both were merely attempting to show off, to intimidate him.

“It is not I who will require a lesson, I am sorry to say,” Mondatta tilted his head forwards, voice filling with regret. “Humility may be harsh and bitter to taste, but it is a medicine most helpful for the soul”.

The wounded omnic’s whirrs and frantic binary beeping bled into a background noise as Mondatta’s sensors turned sharp and attentive in preparation for what was to come. He had no intention to leave –none whatsoever.

‘Please go– don’t get hurt, not for me,’ the incessant noise was almost annoying, and Mondatta sent the omnic a quiet, reassuring message, core humming in his chest.

‘Steel your core and be at peace, for I will not leave you alone to suffer’.

He stepped forwards, knowing that his words would not be taken as a reassurance when the other omnic was in so much pain, and keeping his sensors focused on the men he moved to kneel at his side.

Jing-sheng did not move, nor did his goons, but they were all staring at him with identical smirks, open and leering. They did not stop him or try to attack, and Mondatta knew they were merely waiting for him to assess first-hand the sort of damage they could cause.

No matter.

His sensors whirred and focused new subroutines and processes on scanning the omnic’s body, seeking a model number in order to understand the specifics for his body and the extent of the injuries.

From this close, Mondatta’s optical sensors could see the damage in detail, and it led to a pained flare through his thoracic circuits, his core filling with sadness.

The omnic’s model was indeed newer than Mondatta, though without checking for the exact specifics he would be unable to say the exact age, but it was probably closer to a single digit number than not. Circuits and wires were poking free from the junctures, plates bent or absent, and the situation with his legs was horrid –unless Mondatta’s estimation was incorrect, it would require disassembly and substituting the legs with new ones for the omnic to walk again, and even then it might be hard if the connectors and wires were fried and unusable. Changing the entirety of his lower body would be impossible, not without the help of a proper technician who understood omnic technology. The arms were in better conditions, though the missing fingers were leaking oil and clear lubricant all over the ground and the trash bags.

Even worse, Mondatta could see that the omnic did not have much battery left. The glowing dots on his forehead were flickering in and out, their blue faded and weak, and if he shut down now, he might not reboot at all –not with the levels of pain he was in. If his circuits and core stopped working, he would cease to function and not even a clean reset would…

‘Hurts,’ the omnic beeped at him. Even if binary code could not express emotions, not the way modulating voices could, the hesitant flickering of his forehead sensors was enough to convey how tired he was.

‘Please conserve your strength,’ he messaged back, preferring to keep their conversation as private as possible, not wanting to make the humans aware of what they were saying. ‘Can you end the processes for your pain receptors?’

A negative answer, then the omnic’s binary fizzed into white noise, too tired to find the right code to explain the situation. He slumped back against the trash bags, visibly trying to gather enough energy to send another string of messages to him. ‘Fried circuits,’ he computed, then brought his wounded hand, missing three fingers, to touch where his mouth piece had been. The motion was unsteady, his arm shaking.

Mondatta’s sensors flickered as he understood what that meant. There was a dull, unpleasant throb in the back of his mind, and Mondatta knew what it was, and did not like it. Anger was useless and it only stole focus from a situation. He brushed his mind against the ever present Iris, allowing its warmth to soothe him and centre his soul again, chasing away the anger until it was gone.

The omnic’s next message startled him out of his connection. ‘Go now. Leave’.

A hand touched his arm, the contact hesitant and weak. The omnic was still attempting to push him away, even now.

In such a situation, damaged to this point, and yet still more worried about dragging someone else down with him… this spoke volumes of the omnic’s integrity. Mondatta resisted the urge to dab into the Iris fully and use what little he could to soothe this omnic’s pain, because it was not time yet.

He had to face the humans and at least attempt to reason with them.

There was a flash of red in a corner of his optical sensors and a warning buzzed through his brain, and Mondatta reacted quickly, standing in a smooth motion and narrowly avoiding a projectile that hit the ground where he had been moments before.

He twisted to turn towards the three men, and found them perhaps too close to him. One of the goons was bouncing a stone in one hand, throwing it in the air and catching it, uncaring to be seen.

Mondatta brought both hands to the front of his chest once again.

“Why did you harm him?” he asked, refusing to show the turmoil he felt.

Jing-sheng snorted, and shrugged. “I don’t see why I should explain things to you, though I guess that’s how you things are, without clear, simple orders you just won’t function properly. He did not do what he is supposed to do –serve and shut up. He needed discipline, and he’s not the only one”. He turned to look at his two underlings, and made a sharp motion with his fist, thumb spread on the side.

It did not escape Mondatta’s notice that the man had returned to speaking his local dialect –the meaning was obvious.

Still, he would not back down if there was a chance for things to go smoothly without violence.

“That is not reason enough to harm someone,” he replied, straightening his back.

“I grow tired of this,” Jing-sheng shook his head, appearing disappointed and bored. “This has taken too long, and it wouldn’t do to make me displeased”.

“There is no reason for any more violence,” Mondatta spoke again, tone steely but still hoping to dissuade the situation before it could turn even worse.

There was a flicker, and the two men flanking Jing-sheng took a step forwards, clearly spurred on by his words. The one holding the dao lifted it towards Mondatta, a leer on his face, while the other fiddled with a black, compact square, and Mondatta noticed a flicker of electricity on one of its sides. The burn marks on the wounded omnic’s face and his garbled, frantic attempts to speak about his fried circuits suddenly made sense, and Mondatta stiffened.

They had used a Taser, knowing exactly what one could do to an omnic’s circuitry.

There would be no discussion possible with them.

Mondatta brought both hands in front of him, clasped together in what appeared to be a submissive, relaxed gesture, and focused his processors outwards, the fans in his chest starting up in preparation with a soft whirr.

Ever since becoming part of the Shambali order, ever since he had merged for the first time with the Iris, accepting the truth of it into himself, Mondatta had never raised his hand on another, be it human or omnic.

It was not a matter of taking a vow, or refusing violence –it was simply his choice, one he continued to make with every flicker of golden warmth he could feel whenever he reached to touch the Iris, and what kept him going whenever he spoke for equality to those who would listen, and yet…

But of course, that did not mean he could not protect himself, or those in need.

The two men in front of him took a step towards him, ready to engage, and he shifted in a defensive pose, still outwardly relaxed and appearing at ease, his conscious reaching out to the Iris, not touching it yet but ready to embrace it fully, and then–

And then, breaking the tension, the wounded omnic surprised him by pushing himself forwards, uncaring for his own battered, damaged state.

Using only his arms as leverage, his legs dead weight behind him, the omnic dragged himself out of the corner behind him, fingers digging into the stones of the ground with a grating sound, and moved forwards with resilience that broke Mondatta’s sharp focus instantly, snapping him out of his trance, the Iris pushed back and away from him.

Mondatta stared down at him, the sensors on his forehead flashing brighter to show his shock, following him as the omnic fought with his failing body to keep advancing, fingers straining to drag the rest of his body forwards.

For a fleeting second, Mondatta and the humans stared down at him, frozen in place, until it became obvious that the wounded omnic was not trying to escape, but was in fact trying to place himself between Mondatta and the three men.

The omnic, in spite of his state, was trying to protect him.

‘Go,’ was the growled message that the omnic sent to Mondatta, his own forehead sensors flaring brightly for a split second, fuelled by some residual pit of energy inside him. ‘Leave!’

What happened next was just as unexpected; the omnic lifted his head high, broken faceplate and cracks revealing the delicate circuits underneath, and stared right ahead –not at the approaching henchmen but at Jing-sheng, shadows falling on his dented face and playing with his expression, turning it darker, intense, and…

Mondatta felt it, the flare against the back of his mind, a second-hand warmth passing by him, and then the Iris stretched out, coming from the centre of the wounded omnic’s chest. It was nothing more than a flicker, like a broken light attempting to come to life, but it was _there_.

Processors faltering in shock, Mondatta stepped back, arms falling slack at his sides.

The Iris glowed golden like liquid lava, a thin thread he would not have noticed if he had not been so close to touching it himself.

Shining through this battered omnic, through his defiance and his desire to protect Mondatta from ending up like him, the Iris burned to life for a single instant, and the omnic visibly arched up with the tiny sparkle of extra energy, standing up on wobbly knees and unsteady hands closing into fists, burning with something bright that only Mondatta could see and facing the humans who were still advancing, blind and ignorant to the truth he had glimpsed–

It lasted a mere section, then the connection was severed.

Batteries depleted and consciousness faltering, the omnic shuttered and powered down, slumping on the ground.

The light returned to dormancy, but the connection had been there, and Mondatta felt a wave of fondness for the nameless omnic who had fought within an inch of death to keep a stranger out of danger despite himself.

In front of him, the men paused their advance, stared down at the unresponsive omnic, then one of the two lashed out and kicked him, making his body roll away like dead weight, face turned upwards.

Mondatta stepped forwards, hands still clasped together in front of his chest, and stared at the men in front of him, expression steely.

“You will cease, and desist,” he said with conviction.

His answer was a loud snort, and then Mondatta found himself under attack.

The alley was not big, but there was enough space around him that he could step away from his fallen comrade and distance himself from the incoming assault, and so he did, arms returning to their resting position in front of his chest.

Sensors flared up, wires tensing in preparation, fans whirring on once again–

The first man attacked him with no finesse, barrelling towards him with one arm stretched towards him, a sparkle of electricity on the end of his Taser.

Mondatta stepped to the side at the last possible second, his vest fluttering as he avoided the attack, and felt the buzz of the electricity pass inches away from his face plate.

“Good at running away huh?” the man hissed, and tried to follow Mondatta’s movements with his arm.

Mondatta brought one hand up, flexing his fingers, and pressed the palm flat against the man’s wrist, accompanying the motion while shifting his barycentre down, and stretched his sensors out as he moved, twisting down and away from the attack.

The man toppled forwards, his own impetus making him stumble away from Mondatta, though he regained his balance quickly and turned to stare at him, assurance melting away to be replaced with disdain and rage.

“You fucking–”

Mondatta paid him no mind.

He did not need the Iris, not for this –he had honed his skills through patience and exercise, his body responding perfectly to his orders in a way a human would only through intense years of dedication.

This time the attack came from both sides –the man behind him attacked him, hoping to land a hit while Mondatta was not looking, while the second man raised his dao in the air and tried to use it to slash at him.

Mondatta was prepared, sensors sharp and picking up every detail.

He accepted the incoming attack and deflected the dao with the side of his left arm, the blade hitting the sturdy metal cover and ricocheting away from it slightly, enough that Mondatta could lift his wrist slightly and grab the edge of the weapon.

His hands were not as strong as an unit built for attack and assault, or protected from damage like a defense war unit would be, so Mondatta allowed the lightest contact with the Iris, the warm light passing through his body, glistening gold leaking through his fingers, protecting him from the blade’s sharp edge, and then tightened his hold.

The dao broke neatly in two, the upper part falling on the ground with a soft clang.

Mondatta did not even look at it, already twisting away, his hand still holding onto the remaining piece of dao. The human attached to it was tugged along, too shocked by the sight of his weapon breaking to stop himself. With nothing more than a gentle push with his other hand, Mondatta sent him on the ground, face meeting the stones with a painful crunch.

There was little time for assessing the man’s pain, not that Mondatta would have allowed himself to feel grief for that, as he was merely protecting himself from an attack.

He turned around and received the second man’s attack by swinging the handle of the sword towards him, knocking the Taser to the side; he lunged forwards, drawing an arch with his other arm to grab the man’s wrist, used his speed against him and sent him along to stumble forwards.

The man toppled over some scattered trash bags and went down with a stream of curses, slipping in the trash and the oil residues, head barely missing the wall by inches.

Mondatta kept his receptors trained on both men but turned to face Jing-sheng, noticing the narrowed eyes and the way he had backed away from them, either to keep out of the way or to protect himself.

The sensors trained on reading the air and the smells detected a spike of heat and sweat on the man, and Mondatta’s connection with the Iris made him more apt at reading the signals, so despite Jing-sheng’s tense yet carefully blank expression, Mondatta could detect a growing wariness in him, bordering on fear.

To test it, he took a step forwards.

Jing-sheng’s face tightened in an ugly scowl, and his body shifted back, careful to maintain the same distance from Mondatta.

Wary. Angry. Disgusted, and afraid.

Mondatta turned to stare at the two other men, who were both standing. The one who had fallen on his face had a bloody nose and a murderous expression, the other was holding his wrist with a pained look, face marred with hatred.

With a tiny, soft whirr and a sigh, Mondatta allowed his tendril with the Iris to fade, and dropped the blade on the ground.

His scans revealed that the omnic on the ground was alive but hibernating, and it would take a while to see whether his processes were functional and unharmed afterwards, though Mondatta was secure in his knowledge that he would be fine –the Iris had travelled through him, somehow, touching his soul. There was a connection there, and he would not be lost.

Still, he needed immediate help, which Mondatta could not offer until the offenders were dealt with.

Straightening his back, Mondatta placed both hands behind his back, tilting his head forwards.

“You should consider letting the matter go,” he said, tone even. The idea of this crime going unpunished was like a wound in his core, and Mondatta felt grief at the thought of a fellow omnic treated like this and his assailants ending scot free afterwards, but he had to consider what was more important, and helping the omnic was currently his top priority.

Jing-sheng’s eyes darted from Mondatta to the powered down omnic, assessing the possibility of getting out of this situation with his dignity intact and possibly with two omnics turned into scrap metal.

In the end, the man’s pride won over his reluctance. He barked another order to his two henchmen, who were more than happy to rush at Mondatta again, overflowing with anger and killing intent.

The Taser sparkled with charge, the man aiming it to the base of his neck, while the other man brought up his fist, ready to retort with violence.

Mondatta sighed –a tiny, soft sound full of static, then brought both hands to his sides in a languid, sweeping motion, and embraced the Iris.

The back alley became bathed in golden light, spilling directly out of Mondatta’s body as he became one with the Iris, allowing its flow to burst out of his junctures and seams.

The men smashed into him at high speed, blinded by the abrupt light, the Taser hitting Mondatta’s body before the electricity running through it fizzled into nothing, unable to touch or harm him. The other man’s fist hit his shoulder and ricocheted away as if meeting a slippery, unyielding barrier, the touch bringing Mondatta no pain but causing the man to yell out in fright before he backed away.

Mondatta felt the Iris’ warmth fill him, time trickling down to a stop, burning rays of molten gold exploding from his back. If the men had been paying attention instead of shrieking in panic and scrambling away, they would have seen the golden rays turn into mechanical arms, a manifestation of the Iris itself through Mondatta’s willing body.

They did not –they rejected the warmth, feeling nothing but waves of fear and abject horror at the sight of what they could not explain.

Screaming loudly, they stumbled away, and as Mondatta dropped the contact, having reached his physical and mental limit, the Iris washed out from him. The light that had bathed the alley disappeared, and it seemed as if his surroundings turned darker with its absence.

Auricular sensors ringing softly, Mondatta took a step forwards, looking at the three men.

He did not speak, and there would have been no need –Jing-sheng was already running away without turning back, clothes fluttering behind him, his mind blank and panicked. The other two, similarly affected, dropped their weapons and fled the alley, pushing each other and stumbling in their haste to leave as soon as possible.

Mondatta sighed again, a soft whirr as the vents on his body expelled hot air in an attempt to regulate his temperature after the exertion. He had not noticed how dark it was already, having been too busy focusing on the three humans and his fellow omnic, but he noticed now that his optical sensors had switched to nocturnal vision.

As Mondatta reassessed the light source and his vision returned sharply to full functionality, the remnants of the Iris’ soft touch still thrumming through his processors and circuits, he noticed the sensors on the other omnic’s forehead were now pulsating softly, whereas before they had gone completely blank.

The Iris had touched him in this state, probably boosting his battery a little bit.

With a soft, tired sight, he moved to the omnic’s side, and without further ado he gently lifted his heavy, batted body in his arms and then hoisted him on his back.

The darkness would be a good aid in leaving the city behind, especially now that Mondatta needed the quiet in order to recharge and recover.

Mondatta did not look back as he left the alley, finding no trace of the men nearby, and no one around to notice him leaving, either.

***

Mondatta was roused from his meditation by a soft sound coming from his left.

The noise disrupted his concentration, thoughts flooding back to his mind one by one as Mondatta slowly refocused all his circuits to the outwards world, processors whirring to work once again, and he reactivated his optical sensors, which flickered on and adjusted to the light.

It was morning, and his inner clock ticked to indicate that it was one hour past sunrise. The condense felt cold against his outer coating, tiny droplets rolling down his arms and seeping into his vest, and he slowly rolled his shoulders and swiftly stood up.

Leaving Lijiang had been easier than he had expected, thanks to the darkness and how little consideration the people there had of an omnic carrying another like him. Mondatta had briefly entertained the idea of finding the omnic quarters and see if anyone could help, but he deemed it better to just leave.

He had no idea who the man called Jing-sheng was, nor what his reach could be, but Mondatta had no delusions about retaliation. The man had been shamed in front of two of his underlings, and it would take him no time to gather up his courage once more and seek out retribution, and Mondatta did not want to drag more omnics down with him.

No, the best course of action was to leave and perform basic maintenance away from Lijiang, and then carry the wounded omnic to another nearby town to fix him up.

Transcending had helped, though Mondatta had been secure in his knowledge that his unconscious companion would not cease to function, not when he could touch the Iris on his own. Thinking about it still filled his core with wonder.

Mondatta had gathered together many omnics who had wanted to try and do what he could, but very few had managed the feat of touching the Iris, even after years of practice and strict meditation, and other than him, accepting so much of the Iris within them was something none had been able to do yet.

To see an omnic reach out without even noticing… this would be interesting, and Mondatta couldn’t help the anticipation building within his core, wanting to speak at length with the omnic and learn what he could about him.

Travelling during the night was easier for omnics than for humans, but the quiet lands outside of Lijiang were unsuited for travelling on feet for too long, and eventually Mondatta had stopped to recharge, far enough from the city that he could rest without worry.

His companion had not woken up despite his brisk pace, and Mondatta had been grateful –he had no idea how much pain jostling his legs would bring him, even after the little help the Iris had offered him. Hibernating was good, recovering and recharging would help until they were able to find someone who could do some basic repairs.

Now, after an entire night of recharging, it seemed that Mondatta was not the only one who had benefited from the rest.

Still, instead of looking at his companion, waiting for him to power up completely and run his own diagnostics, Mondatta found his attention stolen by the sight in front of him.

He had picked a spot under a tree, reasoning with himself that if there was no shelter available then nature would be the next best option, and had used part of his vest to cover the other omnic’s body, protecting his visible circuits from the cold air and wrapping and cauterizing the open wires of his legs as best as he could before entering his own sleep cycle, so he had paid little attention to his surroundings then.

With the sun peeking from the mountains and his optical vision once again set for daylight, Mondatta found himself taken by the beauty of nature around him, lush grass as far as the eye could see, trees and mountains and a clear sky above.

Cities were beautiful on their own right, but there was something special about a morning spent in the middle of nowhere, with no pollution, no noise other than that of the wind and some birds chirping in the distance, no skyscrapers poking through anywhere.

“It is a beautiful morning,” he murmured in a reverent tone.

Nature never ceased to be an astounding gift.

There was no answer from the other omnic, though Mondatta knew he was awake now, so he finally turned his optical sensors away from the view and back to his companion, only to find him shaking, trembling hands coming to cover his face.

The omnic was curled up on himself, wrapped in Mondatta’s vest, and the whirring noise coming from his core was choked and clipped, vents working overtime to compensate a shift of temperature.

Immediately, worry wiped his earlier calm away, and he knelt down on the grass, one hand hovering on the other omnic’s shoulder but not touching him yet. “Are you alright?”

The shaking of the omnic was intense, and Mondatta felt the loss of his vocal box and mouth piece keenly when his answer was a monotone binary code beeping, a simple phrase repeated over and over. ‘It is,’ he beeped, stilted and corrupted by white noise. ‘It is’.

Still, Mondatta could almost hear the echo of what his voice could be, and the emotion it was meant to convey.

He pressed one hand on the omnic’s shoulder, and felt the tremors of his chassis underneath his fingers, a soft vibration and a hum.

“You are fine now,” he murmured, his own core humming along, hoping to bring his companion some peace. “Let there be peace within your mind, you are safe”.

The words had their desired effect, because the omnic slowly stopped shaking, his fans slowing down until they could be barely heard, and he uncovered his face, pressing his fingerless hand on top of Mondatta’s.

‘Thank… you,’ he beeped at him, hand tightening its grip on top of his own. ‘How…?’

“Those men were scared away, and I carried you with me. We are far from Lijiang,” Mondatta recited the coordinates of their position, his sensors having determined roughly where they were. It was not a tool he used often, as he preferred to live without knowing exactly where he was in the world, but he knew it would reassure his companion of his safety. “Far enough, my dear”.

The other omnic nodded, apparently appeased, and Mondatta sat down at his side, already running more diagnostics. His battery levels were higher, but due to the extensive damage done to his body they had not been replenished even after so many hours of hibernation; still, he was awake and responsive, and that was good enough for the moment.

Reassured that there was no danger, Mondatta focused on the next important thing.

“What is your name?” he asked.

The omnic had been distracted again, face turned to the sight of the lands around them, but when he heard Mondatta speak he turned his attention to him once again, though he seemed to hesitate, head tilted down to his lap.

Instead of replying, he ran his other hand over the vest covering him, and on the strands Mondatta had used to tie around his knees.

The silence stretched on.

“Do you not have one?” Mondatta changed tactics, then motioned for the omnic to shuffle forwards, so that he could have a look at the matrix model that was carved on his back, beneath the wires poking from his midsection.

‘I…’ the omnic hesitated again, but did bend forwards. ‘I do’.

Mondatta brushed his fingers along the omnic’s spine, following the wires to where they disappeared inside the chassis and pushed them to the side, locating the model number and ran a different sort of diagnostics, this time researching his data bank for the information he had on the model. He kept quiet and did not push for an answer, as his question had been sensitive, and he was aware there was more to it than reluctance.

The omnic model number gave Mondatta more than just the exact specifics for the parts and the tech level needed to fix his broken parts, and the software used to run his processors and most of his sensors. It also told him exactly when he had been produced and from which Omnium.

So young –in human terms this omnic would have been a child, and it was fortuitous that omnic development did not require an actual childhood, but merely an introduction to the world through learning and adapting and becoming self-aware in the span of days, weeks at most.

Even then, it was a young model, less than five years old from his first steps out of an Omnium who had been about to be destroyed in a back alley, who had the ability to touch the Iris, even if he could not recognise it.

“If you feel better, I would prefer to start moving early,” Mondatta decided to let the matter rest, for the moment. If it came down to it, he would address the omnic by his model number, until he became comfortable enough to share his name with him. “Will you be fine?”

Startled at being addressed again without further questions about his name, the omnic looked up, a soft hiss as his vents released some steam.

‘Legs do not hurt as much today,’ he admitted, his binary beeping somewhat steadier. ‘… thank you’.

Mondatta’s array sensors flashed brightly in a smile and he nodded. There would be time later to talk more, probe and learn, but they had to move now. “I will try not to jostle you too hard, but you might have to endure the pain until we reach another city”.

The omnic fumbled a bit when Mondatta offered him his back, but accepted the help regardless, as he would not be able to walk on his own, not anymore. He stumbled forwards and grabbed on Mondatta’s shoulders with his hands, the right one unsteady with only three fingers left on it, but the grip was still strong enough to hold onto him as Mondatta stood back up, balance shifting to accommodate the extra weight.

Mondatta paused when he felt his body stiffen, legs dangling uselessly against his sides.

“Is this alright?”

A soft whirring noise, then a steady affirmative. With a hum, Mondatta started to walk, aligning his compass with the direction that would lead them to the closest city.

For a while, there was silence between them. Mondatta knew the other omnic was not asleep, as he could feel him shift slightly every time his legs were jostled the wrong way, though he never complained or uttered a sound of pain, but it was apparent that neither of them were up for chit-chat.

The road ahead of him was mostly straight, and Mondatta had a good view of the rolling hills that disappeared into the distance, far ahead, and contented himself with observing his surroundings, sensors picking up the wind’s strength and the temperatures slowly raising as the sun started to warm his metal, chasing away the cold of the night.

It was easy to get lost in the motions, even when he carefully walked to avoid causing his companion more harm, so when the other spoke up, it took Mondatta by surprise.

‘Tekhartha’.

Mondatta blinked, and for a moment he idly wondered how the omnic had learned of his name –his visage was one of many, and while he had been shown more than once on the holo-vision and on national broadcasts, the situation in China was still bordering on _difficult_ , and most transmissions about omnic propaganda were censored, heavily edited or denied altogether.

“I’m sorry?” he asked, more out of idle surprise than anything.

So, it was even more surprising when after another short hesitation, the omnic continued, binary bleeding any emotion he might have felt out of his tone, ‘my… name. It’s Tekhartha’.

The body against his back was tense, as if expecting some sort of negative retribution, but Mondatta was too busy being surprised at the name choice to pay much notice of it. Of all the names he might have expected, this omnic had chosen the same given name Mondatta had picked for himself.

It was not common, by any means. For an omnic to choose that name…

“Oh,” the whisper left his lips almost as an afterthought, the hum of his core processor growing louder for a beat.

‘I…’ there was something else, left unsaid by the omnic… by Tekhartha, but Mondatta could feel the reticence and the hesitation, his body inching away from where he was holding onto Mondatta’s shoulders as if expecting a rejection, so he reached out blindly with one hand to pat the hands still holding onto him.

“It is a fine name,” he replied, diplomatically, and felt a lingering buzz of amusement in the back of his mind, and a faint embarrassment.

‘It is his name,’ the admission was delivered plainly through binary code, but Mondatta could hear Tekhartha’s fans kicking up a fuss in embarrassment, and his words did not register for a few more seconds before Mondatta realised that yes, Tekhartha had indeed picked that name from him but… he did not know who _he_ was. Well. ‘ I thought it could be mine. A promise. But I might have done wrong. I did not intend to steal, or cheapen it’.

Mondatta had known that his message had travelled far –China was, all things considered, rather close to Shambali, and the perfect fertile soil for his words to take root, with how little rights omnic had on this land– but there was still something powerful in being reminded that somewhere there were omnics who looked up at him and fought for their own rights thanks to his voice speaking out. Knowing they were not alone because someone, somewhere, was fighting the same battles they were. Speaking out, stepping up to show the world that omnics deserved to be seen as something more than mere tools.

It was humbling, in a way, the same way touching the Iris and remembering how little they mattered, how tiny they were compared to the universe around them was. It also made Mondatta feel stronger, reassured.

“Names cannot be stolen. You chose that name for yourself, and it is yours, too. If you look up to where you want to be, and the things you wish to change, no one can take your choice away from you,” he reached out once again to touch the battered, ruined hand clasping his shoulder, reminder of Tekhartha’s strength, of his attempt to get Mondatta away from the alley. Strength, and fire. “The meaning you have for your own name… it already fits you, dear one”.

A soft, fumbling whirr of fans, and another discharge of steam, and Mondatta worried for a moment that overheating would deplete more of Tekhartha’s battery.

‘Thank you,’ again, Tekhartha thanked him, and Mondatta could hear his beeping simmer down to a stutter.

“You should power down some more,” he suggested quietly. “There is still a long way until we find help, and you still need to keep your battery usage down”.

He felt Tekhartha nod against the back of his neck, and he expected to hear the noises of processes powering down. Instead, Tekhartha’s core hummed stronger.

‘What is your name?’

A pause, then Mondatta’s own vents expelled steam all of sudden, his embarrassment spiking up at the realisation that he would need to tell Tekhartha that he was talking with the omnic whose name he had picked as his own. Against his back, Tekhartha was startled, the steam passing too close to his hammered face, the heat sending flares of pain down the open circuits of his missing mouth piece.

“I’m sorry!” Mondatta’s fans started up in a late attempt to keep his heat levels down, embarrassment higher now that it had caused his companion harm, and Tekhartha beeped in confusion and weariness, not sure what was wrong but attempting to reassure Mondatta that he hadn’t been hurt too much.

‘What…?’

“Please, don’t concern yourself,” Mondatta brought one hand to his face in a motion he had learned from humans, embarrassment where his expression would not show any of it.

Looking up at the path stretching out in front of him, Mondatta’s core whirred loudly, the gentle touch of the Iris in his mind and Tekhartha secured on his back.

With no hesitation, he walked on, the rhythmic pace of his footsteps allowing him to calm his embarrassment down.

“My name is Tekhartha Mondatta,” he finally said, looking ahead.

The soft spluttering from Tekhartha on his back was met with a serene, heartfelt chuckle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Sankhara (Pali):** Mental or physical formation  
>  **Kalyana mitta (Pali):** Spiritual friend. In the Theravada Buddhist meditation tradition, teachers are often referred to as spiritual friends.
> 
>  **Trivia:**  
>  *I headcanon omnics as not having given names on their own at first, only using their identification numbers, but they can choose their own names once they have reached the point where they either decide to go against their starting programming, thus starting to think for themselves, or acquire a higher state of self-awareness (not the same thing as enlightenment though).  
> *At first I chose Lijiang through a simple google search, and only after having written 4k of this chapter I found out it was part of Overwatch's canon settings already, so I went back and edited to include that info.  
> *I see Mondatta as a pacifist, but even pacifists can know how to protect themselves, so he knows basic martial arts.  
> *This chapter I kept the point of view to Mondatta for stylistic purposes (until Zenyatta offered his name, he remained a nameless omnic, but choosing to name himself for the first time to someone else settled his first step towards his character)  
> *On the subject of Zenyatta's name, his choice of picking Tekhartha as given name from Mondatta was done because he feels inspired by the figure of an omnic who wants equality for everyone and a hope to be able to learn to be someone who can help others too. this will be touched upon in the next chapter. The second part of his name will make an appearance soon too, I promise.


	2. Chapter 02 - Dukkha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I happened to finish another chapter of this fanfic, and there is a vague start of a mini sub-plot there, so we'll see how far it goes. If it feels a bit slow moving, i'm sorry, but i hope you will enjoy this fic nonetheless!
> 
> as for the possibility of the genyatta ship, i'm still uncertain. this fic is definitely going to be a long and slow one, so putting a ship now would be useless and i don't feel like baiting readers if genji isn't going to even appear anytime soon, so i think i will leave things as they are for now and deal with possible romance at a later date. (if you like the fic you can definitely rec it to others, of course!)
> 
> More of my headcanons related to omnics appear in this chapter, I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 02: Dukkha**

 

“There is beauty in every little thing, Tekhartha,” Mondatta’s voice was soft, but the amusement in his tone was obvious.

Tekhartha tilted his head up, his optical sensors whirring softly to focus on him before he lowered his gaze again to stare at the rather fat chicken that had taken residence on his lap. It appeared undisturbed with the bumping and jostling of the van, eyes closed and content where it was.

‘I am not quite sure this counts as beautiful,’ was his dry reply, binary beeping unable to convey the exact depth of his deadpan. ‘It’s…’ he hesitated, searching for a word that would express what he was feeling, then shrugged, giving up.

The first day of travel with Mondatta had been like a blur. Tekhartha had been tired, his battery running low even after his numerous naps, and it did not help that while he was awake, his body thrummed with constant pain.

Before meeting with Mondatta –before even getting to Lijiang, before someone had thought to ask for his name– Tekhartha had met humans who had no qualms with showing their anti-omnic stance at any given time. Some of them had been physically aggressive, others had offered their fair share of scathing words, and in both cases Tekhartha had opted to avoid unnecessary conflict and leave as quick as possible.

In rare cases, he’d had to retaliate to protect himself. Sometimes he had been damaged, dents on his arms or a ripped wire, and once he had needed to replace a LED from his forehead array due to a well-aimed rock.

Yet, the methodical assault he had received in Lijiang had been the worst, and Tekhartha had been forced to reassess his threshold of pain.

His legs, damaged enough that he could not feel any sort of sensation from below the knee, were useless and unmoving, but the pain throbbing from the broken, cauterized wires was a constant. Every little movement of his hips or thighs sparkled up new waves of pain, and at times it was so intense it caused his binary to falter and fill with static.

He was still grateful that he did not feel anything below the knee, as his diagnostic could still run even for the disconnected parts of his body, and the scan results were worrisome.

Forced between wake and standby mode to recover some battery, Tekhartha had been unable to talk much with his new companion; it was probably why he was able to exchange pleasantries with Mondatta without having a small breakdown every single time he was reminded that the one omnic he had been looking up to was the one who had saved his life. With little else to do to occupy his mind during his wake, Tekhartha had allowed his mind to wander, still awed at his newfound freedom. Lijiang had seemed to be a good choice at first, but had soon turned into a cage, months of living in the slums and trying to do as much as he could had led him into that dirty alley, but now…

Around him, the steep mountain hills were an endless sea of deep greens and browns; to his optical sensors everything looked new and exciting, the sight mesmerizing. He had almost forgotten what the wilderness looked like, how green the grass was, how good the air smelled to his sensors without the pollution waste mixing with the stench of gasoil and methane.

The first night they had spent camping out in the wilds, Tekhartha had observed as Mondatta ran a few more diagnostic scans, core humming in displeasure at the results; attentive as he was, Mondatta could do little to help with Tekhartha’s pain, but he did briefly touch the Iris, coating his fingers with golden light in order to soothe what he could.

Tekhartha had been unable to look away –the sight of the golden light called out to him, resonated through his core, and when Mondatta had brought his hands to touch his bandaged knees, the warmth seeping through his circuits had been like a balm, soothing the constant pain until it was a more manageable throb.

He had wanted to ask Mondatta about it –wanted to know why the light felt so familiar, as if he had experienced it before, but with his body feeling less pain, exhaustion trickled into him, turning his binary into a fumbled mess.

He hoped he would have more time to ask his questions before Mondatta had to leave and return to his travels, and that thought had accompanied him as he shuttered down and locked in recharge mode, unaware of Mondatta’s sensors trained on him before he, too, went through his own sleep cycle.

The next day, had at first progressed much the same way.

They were avoiding the Expressway and travelling on the side, through lesser travelled roads that led them to pass through a few smaller settlements, but unfortunately the little villages did not have any technician who would be able to help Tekhartha with the extent of his damage, so they had continued on to the next big city South of Lijiang –Xiaguan.

It was at a two-day walking distance, but Mondatta walked slowly, mindful of Tekhartha’s pain, and they stopped often to make sure the situation would not precipitate further. It looked like it would take them at least twice as long, at first.

As Mondatta had been slowly climbing up a steep road, around midday, a small van had puttered towards them, headed in their same direction.

Much to Tekhartha’s surprise, the old Chinese man at the steering wheel had accepted to let them hitchhike in the back with his load; the man had not smiled at them, but neither had he glared or snubbed them, and Mondatta had expressed his thanks for both of them as he gently shuffled Tekhartha up, slotting him between two tall piles of boxes that turned out to be full of eggs before sitting down in front of him.

The van was not big so there was little space to move, and much to their surprise the latch on the hen cage was untied; as the van made its way up the road, slowly but still faster than Mondatta’s pace had been, a few chickens made their way out of the cage, clucking softly.

They were all Silkies, fluffy plumage completely white, and none of the ones shuffling out of the cage seemed to be afraid of omnics. Much to Mondatta’s amusement, one of them had seemed to find Tekhartha curious enough to move on his lap, and had refused to move despite his attempts to gently shoo it away.

Tekhartha was still too tired to feel much of anything –his battery levels were constantly low, and the road bumps were bad for his legs, sending pain up to his receptors– but he noted Mondatta’s mirth with relief, glad they had managed to find a lift to the next city.

He was grateful Mondatta hadn’t just left him in the omnic area of Lijiang and was willing to accompany him to a nearby city instead so he could be fixed up, but the idea of having to be carried everywhere without mobility did not suit him. This feeling of helplessness clouded his already tired processors, enough that he had to terminate more subroutines in order to keep himself from overheating.

“Do you feel well enough to talk with me?” Mondatta’s voice penetrated through the fog of his brain, and Tekhartha tilted his head to look at him, the lights of his array blinking unsteadily.

‘I… yes,’ he replied, though he was not sure. Talking would keep him focused on something else than the pain. He was still somewhat baffled by the fluffy chicken that had taken residence on his lap, but was afraid to push it away due to the damage done to his coordination.

“How did you end in Lijiang?”

Tilting his head to the side, Tekhartha fidgeted with his arms, noticing that the shaking had increased. He carefully lowered his hands down to press against the surface of the van, the vibrations masking the tremors.

‘I was searching for someone,’ he replied.

The only noises around them were the puttering of the motor of the van and the soft trilling of the wandering chickens; Tekhartha looked up and into Mondatta’s face, sensors reacting to his attention by growing quieter.

‘You saw my identification number,’ he hesitated again, considering what he wanted to say, and tilted his head sideways, looking past Mondatta’s head to look at the road they were leaving behind them. ‘After the news about my Omnium were made public, there was…’

Mondatta hummed but remained quiet, not wanting to rush the story out of him.

He was aware of the scandal tied to the Qinghai Omnium, as it had been covered by every major international news channel, and the broadcasts had leaked into most Chinese channels despite the strict attempt to cover it up.

With the Omnic Crisis averted and all the Omniums shut down one by one, the unaffected omnics had gone through tests and diagnostics in order to provide proof that they had not been infected; some of them had retained their jobs, most had been shunned, and the main goal had become to rebuild.

The Omnium factories were kept under intense scrutiny, and the allowance made by Australia to concede their Outback reservation to the omnic community had been met with intense dislike, the media coverage stressing the negative points more than the positive, but that had not been the only attempt to shift the outcome after the war. The United Kingdom Omnium factory had been tested for defects, and more omnics had been produced and tested after the war in a controlled setting before shutting down the factory for good.

The Chinese Omnium built in the Qinghai province had been one of the minor ones that had not been reactivated during the Omnium Crisis, swept under the radar because of its dormancy, but had reactivated itself after the war had ended –rumours had circulated that the Chinese government had been the cause for its restart, because they had secured the perimeter around the entire area and controlled the new batches of omnics that were created, monitoring them before sending them off to follow their inbuilt programming.

Tekhartha had been created at the Qinghai Omnium; his model had been inspected for faults and then sent to the province capital Xining. The international backlash the government had received for keeping the Omnium working so soon after the war had ultimately forced its closure only months after Tekhartha had been sent to work, and his batch had been the last one produced.

A few of the other minor factories had been dismantled without fanfare, some of them to be rebuilt in unknown locations by underhanded organizations that dealt with the black market, persecuted by law, and a small number of omnics still trickled into society every year, the exact amount under wraps and unregulated by the governments.

With such an unstable situation, it was no wonder that the news of the disappearance of the nuclear core of the Qinghai Omnium only four years after its termination had been badly received by the public.

‘I do not care if that Omnium ceases to operate permanently,’ Tekhartha finally spoke up, the silence too heavy for him to stand anymore. ‘But I kept in contact with some of the omnics from my batch after I left my post and defied my programming, and when they ceased to answer my inquiries I… worried’.

Mondatta was startled by that, the LED lights on his forehead array flashing brightly for a moment, and he leaned forwards.

The news of the Omnium’s stolen power had been on the news, and Mondatta had seen them broadcast everywhere for two weeks before reassurances of the government had quieted down the situation once again. That had been a mere month before. There had been no mention of omnics disappearing, and he did not expect humans to worry about that, and yet…

“How many of them?”

‘Three,’ Tekhartha replied, the number turning into a static at the end. ‘I was tracking down the fourth in Lijiang. She left her post and resigned, and I offered to work in her place in exchange for information on her whereabouts, but…’

“I see,” Mondatta brought both hands to his chest, fingers interlaced together, and Tekhartha relaxed against the pile of egg cartons at his left. “What happened to the other three, that you know of?”

Mondatta regretted his question immediately when Tekhartha flinched, shoulders hunched at the sudden movement before he forced himself to relax again, arms pressed tightly against his sides.

‘Two have disappeared. One has been decommissioned, his spare parts reused’.

With a soft, metallic sigh, his forehead LED lights dimming for a second, Mondatta tilted his head forwards, hands clasped in front of his face. “He is now one with the Iris,” he said. “I know this brings you no consolation, but his soul is at peace”.

Tekhartha’s fingers twitched at that, but he remained silent, the memory of the state of his fellow omnic a vivid memory etched in his data banks. He did not find any consolation in Mondatta’s words, just bitter resentment for not arriving faster in order to help.

“It does not do to dwell on the past,” Mondatta’s voice cut through Tekhartha’s thoughts again, soft but gentle, almost as if reading into his thoughts. This was unlike the outspoken persona he had seen during official broadcasts on television, or the ones on the radio. A booming voice, the epitome of control… the Mondatta in front of him was somewhat mellower. It was… different, and yet he had the same intensity. “The loss of one of our brothers brings grief to my core, but there is more to be gained by focusing on changing things for those of us who are left, so that more losses can be prevented”.

That, at least, was something Tekhartha could agree on.

“We can try to find out what happened to the others from your batch once we arrive at Xiaguan,” Mondatta continued, looking past Tekhartha’s head. “It might offer some light on the situation, and if more of your specific group have been disappearing, it is something that will need to be addressed”.

‘There were seventy-three of us sent out in various locations, and I have not tracked down any of them. It might not be…’ he hesitated. He did not want to make this a problem for Mondatta to worry about, not when he had enough on his plate as it was, but he could not help feeling grateful, core warming up at Mondatta’s offhanded offer. ‘It might just be a coincidence’.

The three that had disappeared, the one that had been terminated so violently… that could have happened due to the general anti-omnic sentiment Tekhartha had seen everywhere, not because they were tied to the Omnium whose nuclear core had been stolen.

There were many other reasons, all of them equally possible.

Mondatta shifted from where he was sitting, one hand reaching out to press against the outer surface of Tekhartha’s shoulder. The sensors under the metal coating registered the pressure and the contact, and he understood the gesture for what it was. “And yet, you feel worried about their fate, just as you were worried about mine in that alley”.

‘How could I not?’ the binary could not express the depths of emotion Tekhartha felt stirring inside his core, the ache that vibrated inside his circuits like fire at the sight of his people treated like they mattered nothing, looked down as if they were nothing but spare parts tossed together when Tekhartha felt they had something different, something that transcended the metal they were made of. The something that Mondatta in his sermons called a ‘soul’. ‘I was sure you would be hurt like me, and I did not want that to happen. My batch… if I am the only one who noticed, then I must do something’.

The hand on his shoulder tightened its hold –anchoring him somehow, supportive– then Mondatta moved away, nodding to him. When he spoke next, his tone was modulated to convey his satisfaction.

“As it is, that should not be something to do on your own, not when your condition leaves you unprotected and in danger. If your batch has been targeted as the last one created by the Omnium, then you do not need to face this alone”.

‘But–’

“There is no shame in needing help. Humans and Omnics alike were created to be social. We grow as we interact with others, and as such we gain strength in number, not in solitude. Allow yourself to seek for help when you need it, and then offer it back to those who similarly require it, as there is worth in both. No soul, human or omnic, was made to face the world on its own. However vigorous and independent one may feel during the most prosperous periods of life, when one is sick or very young or very old, one must depend on the support of others, and find strength in reaching out to them”.

Mondatta’s tone was gentle but stern, almost chiding, and Tekhartha felt the full strength of his words resonate through his core, the placid security behind Mondatta’s words reaching to him.

He looked down at his mangled hand, his immobile legs and the exposed wires now hidden underneath parts of Mondatta’s kasaya. Just two days before, he had been left mangled in a dark side alley, and his life could have ended like that. Now he was still moving, there was a chance that he could still do his part to help, even like this, but he would not be able to do it all by himself, not like this. The helplessness was still there, but he acquiesced to Mondatta’s teachings with a small nod, forcing his tense circuits to relax.

“I… yes. I understand”.

Mondatta’s pleased hum almost made up for the abrupt jostling of the van as it hit a hole in the road, sending a panicked Silkie chicken squawking out of Tekhartha’s lap and running around until it wiggled back in its cage, leaving behind in its wake a flutter of feathers and both omnics whirring in startled laughter.

***

Xiaguan was situated South of Lijiang, and was a modern city by all standards.

The official name was Dali, and rather than a city, it was a county-sized area that had been labelled city for administrative purposes. To separate the old town, situated an hour away, from the modern city the latter took the local name of Xiaguan, while the former kept the name Dali. The city was another famous touristic attraction, though the industrial part was located solely in Xiaguan; due to its proximity to Lijiang, there were a lot of engineers and mechanics residing there that worked full time with omnics and nearby factories.

Mondatta had been to Xiaguan in the past, and after pondering over it for a bit, had decided that the sympathisers he knew lived there would be able to help Tekhartha.

The only reason he had faith such a slow pace would not ruin his chances to fix Tekhartha’s legs was that the Iris had touched his body not long after he had received his injuries, and kept them stable. Not even the jostling would worsen his condition, allowing them to comfortably reach their destination.

He had kept the situation monitored as much as he could though, and it would have been faster to get there if he had taken the Expressway that connected the two cities –some car might have stopped to help them get there more comfortably, but… he had rushed out of Lijiang with little thought, more preoccupied with trying to get Tekhartha away from a possible retaliation from Jing-sheng to pay attention to that, and he had decided on a course of action only afterwards.

Even then… the nudge at the back of his head, a bare brush of golden warmth against his circuits had convinced him that the lesser travelled roads were the best option, slow as it was.

As the van puttered its way down the road and towards Xiaguan two hours later, earlier than they would have managed on foot, Mondatta looked over the familiar sight of the city’s buildings, already calculating how to avoid possible negative attention to reach his contacts.

It was entirely by chance that his optical sensors caught Tekhartha tensing up at the edge of his vision. Such a minute motion –his unharmed hand clenching tightly at his side, the other twitching uselessly, three fingers digging into the wood of the van, head tilted down to his lap.

His sensors registered the tension, circuits already running a small background diagnostic without him directly asking for one, and the result was as expected –Tekhartha’s temperature levels were higher than normal, core heating up as more processes started up without terminating any old one and cluttering his data, apparently unconcerned or unable to sort through them. Mondatta understood why moments later. He was afraid –this was a city, no matter if smaller than Lijiang, and the last time he had been in a city, Tekhartha had been…

“Nothing will happen to you,” Mondatta spoke up, attracting Tekhartha’s attention to him. “Please boost the priority of what is left of your maintenance protocols and decrease your core temperature. You will not be harmed”.

Tekhartha had not realised his core had grown in temperature, brain sluggish as he stared at the city ahead of him, but he promptly focused on himself and terminated the clutter of extra protocols that had been slowing his functions down.

Immediately, his fans started working with a hiss, and his brain registered the lessened pressure with relief, thought processes clearing up.

There had been wariness at the sight of the city that he had not expected to feel –he was used to being the target of hate, and had long since accepted that in order to do something he would find himself facing those who found him lacking of ‘humanity’, but the weight on his chest at the first sight of Xiaguan was concerning.

His first real contrast had ended up with his body trashed, but being afraid… it would not help him. Frustration at his own inadequacy was next –he had been taken by surprise without a chance to get away before things had turned sour, and now he felt afraid when he had managed, until then, to keep his core steady even in the face of adversity.

“Fear is not something you should reject, my dear,” again, Mondatta’s tone managed to tug Tekhartha’s attention back to him. “In face of the violence you felt on your own body, it would be weirder for you to not feel any. Yet, one should not live ruled by fear, for that is when your actions become tainted by doubts. Facing your fears will allow you to see your own limits and how to make peace with them”.

‘Not easy,’ he spoke up before he could stop himself, binary thankfully mellowing the biting frustration into a blank, toneless beep.

“No one said facing one’s fears has to be easy. For some it is as hard as breathing, for others it comes at a heavy price… and yet, to move forwards, one must be honest and acknowledge where the fear resides, what caused it, and the best way to gain a semblance of control over it, so that you may rule over your emotions, and not the opposite”.

Mondatta spoke with certainty again, and Tekhartha had to wonder –how many times had he faced similar attitudes from others, how many times had Mondatta feared retaliation, not just against himself, but against other omnics?

Tekhartha had looked up to him before, had been inspired and reassured that somewhere, someone was standing up for them, tall and proud in the face of so much discord, and this respect had grown even more after meeting him –meeting the omnic behind the public façade– so he could only wonder what kind of strength he had, a fortitude Tekhartha hoped he could learn to emulate and feel as well, at some point.

He had no delusions that this would not happen again, either. He could face another situation where he would be helpless, because no one was truly invincible. No one could be so full of pride to believe they would never be bested by someone else.

It was all a matter of what Tekhartha himself would do then –freeze or react?

With this seed of knowledge buried deep within his memory data, Tekhartha looked at Mondatta –the omnic who faced adversity every day not for his own benefit, but for that of their entire people– and bowed his head as deeply as he could.

‘You speak plainly of great truths, but accepting that still doesn’t help,’ he said. ‘As I am now, I am still weak’.

Mondatta’s core hummed, the lights on his forehead array blinking steadily in a fond smile. “For how simple it might sound, there is strength in seeing your own weakness, and it is the first step on your path”.

‘What path?’

“The path to the Iris”.

That was enough to startle Tekhartha into standing straight, the pain forgotten at Mondatta’s candid admission, but there was no time for him to inquire about what that meant –and if it implied what Tekhartha hoped– because the van shuddered into a sudden stop on the side of the road.

Mondatta slid off the van without looking back, leaving Tekhartha to stare at his figure as he moved to the driver’s seat to talk with the man. Seconds later, he came back.

“Our lift ends here,” Mondatta reported. Tekhartha understood that to mean he would have to shuffle towards the edge of the van, ignoring the way the wood under his body scraped against the metal of his legs, and Mondatta hoisted him on his back once more. “That man said there are armed guards further inside at the nearest plaza. There was some trouble and the city decided to increase security, and they ask for model identification to any nearby omnics. Our driver suggested we avoid the commotion altogether, which was helpful of him, indeed”.

Tekhartha was surprised at that, not having expected such a kind mention from a man who had looked so sour despite offering them a lift, and felt bad at the thought; there was nothing good to be gained by assuming.

“Only assume the best, but be prepared for the worst, just in case,” Mondatta’s voice was amused, the vibration of his vocal box thrumming under Tekhartha’s fingers, pleasantly.

‘Yes,’ he sent back, array flickering a little.

He was tired again, tired enough that even his pain had blurred slightly, becoming more bearable. Tekhartha listened to the soft hum of Mondatta’s core and his internal fans whirring, and his thoughts ran forwards, allowing himself to indulge in the hope of being fixed. The thought of never walking again was contemplated, then pushed down and denied. He did not want to think about that –he could not.

Part of him wanted to disable his optical sensors, allegedly to save on his depleted battery, but he knew it would be just an excuse to not see the city around him, so he kept them functioning and instead disabled every basic process he did not have use for –like his smell detector or the handful sensors regarding temperature and air pressure. Minor warnings flashed through his brain but he ignored them, as the sensors were disposable and he would not need them.

He hesitated, then decided to keep his auditory sensors, not wanting to miss it if Mondatta spoke again –or if danger approached, he wanted to be as aware as possible.

Mondatta seemed to know where to go, and despite himself, Tekhartha found his attention shifting towards their surroundings as the empty streets slowly became crowded.

The buildings were tall and more modern than the ones he had seen in Lijiang, and the distinction helped him settle the still blossoming weight in his core enough that he could take some pleasure in admiring the city as they moved through street after street at an even, pleasant pace.

Few humans cast glances at them, most just doing their own things without much care, and the ones that had any animosity in their gaze were quick to look away, which was… not pleasant, but a relief all the same.

Tekhartha even noticed a few omnics here and there –some of the models that still worked retail, and one that was cleaning a window with practiced moves, swiping a rug from one end of the other rhythmically.

It was different from Lijiang, where omnics refused to be seen during the day, a radical change that surprised him, but he had little time to ponder over it when Mondatta turned a corner and they walked down a smaller, narrowed street.

Again, Tekhartha felt the same pressure settle inside his core like a dead weight, a growing sense of unease that brushed to the back of his neck, and he recoiled from it, accepting its presence only out of necessity, not wanting to recognise it as fear but too mindful of Mondatta’s words not to.

Distracting, confusing, unpleasant –Tekhartha had always considered fear a lesser problem, not important in the scheme of things. His fellow omnics suffered and were degraded every day, and with so many things to do and so little time and help to do them all, Tekhartha had never considered there would be something he could not control within himself.

He had been wrong.

Fear was irrational, and with his thought processes focusing more on the wariness, the certainty that something would soon come to him and he would be powerless to stop it, Tekhartha’s optical sensors fluttered between working and faltering, the constant switch taking a toll on his battery.

Yet, Mondatta’s even pace never faltered, and thought the ever present mounting tension, Tekhartha became aware that the buzzing of Mondatta’s sensors and fans had grown louder not due to his senses sharpening out of fear but because they _were_ louder.

“It would do you well to focus on an external sound and allow yourself to resurface from the depths of your thoughts, for you might risk drowning in them,” Mondatta offered, referring to his fans. “Meditation comes as a balm for the soul, but it is not the time, nor the place, for that lesson to be learned. Focus, my dear, and let me lead the way”.

It did help.

The soft sound of fans vibrating and spinning helped Tekhartha unload his processors again, and although it was a constant fight to keep his attention from straying to every shadowed corner or dubious side street, he managed to push his fear down enough to function, the strain on his battery lessening by the time Mondatta moved back to a more open, trafficked street.

Even then, his energy levels were dropping lower than normal, and his refusal to go in stand-by mode pushed his reserves down at a faster pace, so it was with a rush of relief through his circuits that Tekhartha welcomed Mondatta’s “we have arrived”.

The building did not look any different from the others, except that it was a side entrance to what looked like a restaurant, and Tekhartha was grateful he had culled his smell receptors, as he did not want to get an overload in his data.

Mondatta pushed the door open and called out a soft greeting, and Tekhartha weakly lifted his head up a little in surprise when they entered a narrow backroom, sterile and metallic, that led into a cluttered kitchen full of noise.

It was obviously a tight fit. The three men were somewhat buff or otherwise heavy set, and the chatter in the air was only broken by the huffs and puffs of the pots and pans on the stoves as they moved them around, woks and boilers bubbling and fizzling. There were a couple omnics too, and they were all working together, footsteps light and soundless as they moved back and forth between ovens and stoves as if they belonged there, with practiced ease.

“The back entrance is staff only,” one of the men spoke up in clipped Hani, wiping his hands carelessly on the apron he was wearing before he turned around, but his gruff exterior melted into surprised awe as he noticed who had entered. “Oh my–”

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Technician Li,” Mondatta spoke, modulated voice full of warmth. “It appears your kitchen is as busy as always”.

“The pleasure is all mine, Master Mondatta,” the cook, a buff, shaven man with a round face and cropped hair, bowed low in front of Mondatta. “I did not expect to see you at all, or I would have prepared a better welcome”.

“I am not here to speak, but to ask for a favour,” Mondatta replied with a curt movement of his arm, which brought Li’s attention to Tekhartha.

Li and Tekhartha shared a look with one another, each assessing the other with a mix of curiosity and surprise, before Li’s mouth fell open in shock as he took in the damage visible in his arms and cranial area.

“That…” his tone twisted into one of anger before he smoothed his expression back to one of calm. “I suppose you will require Cheng’s help for a bit, huh. Fair is fair, that guy has been impossibly petulant all week, you can have him for as long as you need him”.

Tekhartha had noticed the kitchen’s chatter had stopped with Mondatta’s appearance, both humans and omnics casting glances at him while trying to keep most of their attention on their job, but at Li’s words one of the omnics straightened his back and whirred a sigh. Just like the human cooks, the omnic was wearing white clothes and a wide apron around his hips, with tiny oily blotches on its hem.

“I will get him,” he said, and there was a lilting accent that Tekhartha’s tired processors could not identify in his tone. He turned around, one last stir to the wok he was holding, and then he exited the kitchen in a hurry, his place filled by one of the humans.

Mondatta shuffled to a corner, mindful not to step where he would impede the movement of the cooks, and stood in a way that would allow Tekhartha to observe their actions as well, aware of his curiosity for the scene.

“Who is your unfortunate friend, Master Mondatta?”

Li had gone back to stirring a pot full of delicate looking jiaozi, but glanced above his shoulder at Mondatta, looking unsure whether Tekhartha was able to speak or not.

“His name is Tekhartha,” Mondatta replied, and Tekhartha found the folds of his Shambali kasaya more interesting after the fleeting smirk on Li’s face. Yet the casual introduction of his name by Mondatta made him happy. “He met some unfriendly faces in Lijiang and I thought Cheng would be able to help him”.

“I’d say,” Li’s eyes narrowed in obvious anger, and Tekhartha’s vents exhaled a small puff of smoke at the realisation that Li was angry on his behalf. This, more than anything else, helped him relax in the uncomfortably hot kitchen. “I hoped your next visit would be under better circumstances, but I am glad to know you consider this little place worth of returning once more and one you think when you find yourself in need. It humbles me”.

“Your little family is a small haven in this world marred with rage and anger, Technician Li,” Mondatta replied, and tilted his head to encompass the kitchen with his gesture.

Li shrugged, the hunch of his shoulders revealing his pleased embarrassment, then seemed to shake himself and turned to flash a small smile at Tekhartha. “Last time your master was here, he helped us quite a bit. Xiaguan is not a the most pleasant place to live if you have ancestry like mine, even more so when you are an obstinate mule… and I am one, keeping these stubborn metallic bolts working here,” one hand waved to the remaining omnic, who chittered before flipping the wok she was holding, mushrooms and vegetables sailing expertly in the air before she tilted the wok to catch them back.

“As if we’d want to work anywhere else, old man,” her voice was a pleasant baritone, the chassis of her front an oxidized mix of grey and brown, a two-dot array on her forehead visible as she turned to look at her boss. “This is the only decent restaurant in the entire Xiaguan, and I wouldn’t accept anything less than the best to learn the art”.

“Keep buttering me up and we’ll see about that upgrade, Mei-ling!” Li laughed, a raspy sound that was filled with warmth and amusement.

“Anything you say, boss,” she flared back, and returned to her work without any more words.

The other door of the kitchen opened again as the cook that had left returned, followed by what looked like a patchy collection of many different omnics built as one.

The result was somewhat weird to look at –both arms were of varying sizes, the left one bigger and buffer while the right one was lither, somewhat newer in make and shape, and the head was of a model not unlike that of Mondatta and Tekhartha, though the mouth piece was black and the nodes connecting neck and chest were blue. Instead of the attire the cooks wore, he was wearing linen pants cut at the knee, which showed mismatched legs as well. There were three LED lights on his forehead in a diagonal line, glowing a soft green.

“Master Mondatta!” there was a feedback delay in the omnic’s voice as he spoke, like the voice box was not perfectly attuned to the processors needed to vocalise the sound, but the result was not as jarring as it could have been. “Seya said you have need of my… oh”.

“It is nice to see you are unchanged since last time, Cheng,” Mondatta nodded, sounding pleased, and the mismatched omnic called Cheng laughed merrily, fidgeting with his hands as he shuffled closer to them, avoiding the cooks but doing so with little grace.

If Tekhartha had any leftover energy he would have inched away from Cheng as he got too close to him, but he had none so he merely tensed up, expecting the other omnic to examine him through touch –instead Cheng kept a respectful distance, but his optical sensors were whirring loudly as he ran diagnostic after diagnostic, looking him up and down for a few seconds.

“Legs are really bad,” he stated, head tilted to the side. “Not sure I can fix them. Might have to replace them. I think I have some of compatible models that will do just fine. Voice box and mouth plate too, but I might have to build some new fingers and rewire the connectors, that might take a while…”

There was an edge to his voice that contrasted harshly with the previous happy lilt, and Tekhartha was startled to realise _this_ was Cheng’s original purpose –his actual programming bleeding into his tone.

It was not the first time he had met an omnic whose original programming had been abandoned for something else, but he had forgotten… how empty it seemed to make an omnic’s voice sound. Hollow. Without personality.

Some omnics were lucky if they retained love for their original programming, once their self-analysing and growth allowed them to transcend that and come to their true selves. Some had no trouble mixing themselves back with what they knew how to do.

Some, like Tekhartha, had moved on and had never looked back, afraid that the pull of their programming would tug at them again, shrouding them and stealing their sparkle away.

This was a startling reminder.

Mondatta interrupted the rant by pressing one hand on Cheng’s forehead, covering his array lights, and the flow of words coming from him fluttered into a stop.

“I would not ask for your help if I thought this to be too much for you,” he said, and the edge of sorrow in his voice was palpable. “You are free to say no”.

‘I would prefer to remain like this if aiding me meant losing yourself,’ Tekhartha spoke up, beeping faded out on the edges due to his low battery alert. He was pushing himself and he knew it, but cycling back into recharge at this moment would be useless. ‘My physical health does not come before your mental one, and I cannot ask anything of you that would cause you harm’.

His words seemed to startle both Mondatta and Cheng, and the latter tilted his head down, Mondatta’s hand still on it, to look at Tekhartha. When he spoke next, his voice was strong once again, no trace of the emptiness from before. “You are asking nothing of me, I am freely offering. I’ll help because this is something I can do, and there is no better way to feel good than by helping someone else…” he turned his optical sensors to Mondatta, then back at Tekhartha. “Isn’t that right?”

Mondatta’s fans whirred into action, and the hand on Cheng’s forehead pressed down harder in pride before he moved away.

“Thank you,” he said, and through the haze of his tired brain, Tekhartha echoed that sentiment.

***

There was some missing time in Tekhartha’s logs by the time he reached the small, claustrophobic lab room a few blocks away from the restaurant.

It was thanks to his job at the restaurant that Cheng and the other omnics employed under Li lived nearby rather than in the omnic district, and that helped them have more time to reach the restaurant every morning to do their job. It was a luxury, considering the rampant dislike towards omnics, and a good one for Tekhartha, as he did not think he would have lasted all the way to the outskirts.

His battery alerts kept flashing in his mind, synaptic receptors straining to keep all his active functions online, and the missed time was his circuitry working overtime to keep him aware, unfortunately flickering on and off too often.

He was aware of the lull in his systems as the silence stretched on for too long when a part of him knew Cheng and Mondatta were making idle conversation with one another as Cheng led them to his apartment, but he was too tired to try and fix the situation, and he still stubbornly clung to consciousness.

Mondatta lowering him down on a sterile, cold table shook him out of his catatonic state, but the warbled mess of empty binary that came out from him instead of an actual question turned into static as Cheng tied him down to the table.

There were machines all around him, pieces of metal and spare parts that blurred together in his optical sensors, and if not for the comforting weight of Mondatta’s arms on his shoulders, Tekhartha might have panicked, brain flickering on and off due to a combined mix of fatigue and the ever present ache from his joints.

The confusion racking through his processors lowered the tight control Tekhartha had managed to keep on his emotions, and the fear he had pushed down until then trickled back in, dulling everything else until it was hard to focus.

He zoomed in sluggishly on the soft tapping of Mondatta’s fingers against the edge of his shoulders, startled at the feeling of a set of specific taps against his metal that his auricular sensors could not hear, as they had shut down earlier on. It was Morse code, and his brain decoded it automatically, the stream of reassurances Mondatta was offering him grounding his mind against the confusion he felt.

It was frightening –he had nothing but respect and trust for Mondatta, but there was still fear within his mind, twisting through his circuits like liquid fire, and the idea of being exposed and vulnerable and unconscious like that, even with Mondatta at his side, only strengthened that fear.

And yet…

Confused, disjointed thoughts mixed with Mondatta’s binary message of letting go, fleeting memories of Cheng’s falling back into his programming, of his certainty and willingness to help bleeding into memories from further back, codes of programming still etched into the very fibre of Tekhartha’s body when the name Tekhartha was not even an option to consider.

_Trust the programming._

And yet…

No. Trust _Mondatta_. Trust Cheng and his determination to help.

As he had nothing else to do but trust both of them, Tekhartha relaxed and allowed his tense circuits to fall limply on the table, systems dropping offline as he finally allowed himself to fall into a recharging cycle, hoping that once awake, at least his pain would be gone.

Mondatta observed him for a while longer, diagnostics reassuring him that Tekhartha was starting his sleep recharge, before allowing himself a soft sigh of relief.

He had thought it might take him longer to trust Cheng and himself with his unconscious body, but Tekhartha had been running for the past hours entirely on a depleted battery, and it was a wonder he had managed to hold out for this long.

“Resilient one, that kid,” Cheng hummed, fingers running down a list of spare parts to locate those that would fit with Tekhartha’s circuitry the best. “Been a while since I’ve seen that identification number unit”.

Mondatta’s attention sparkled up at that, and he turned to look at him, not removing his hands from Tekhartha’s shoulders even then –he had promised him he would stay at his side until he was sure he would be fine, and he planned to keep his word.

“You’ve met someone from Tekhartha’s batch?”

A soft hum was his only answer as Cheng busied himself with cataloguing connectors, bolts and small pieces of circuitry boards from one of the many stocked cupboards he kept in his lab room.

The room was not spacious, and Mondatta had been there once before, had observed Cheng work on his own body, replacing away part of his arm with something from a different model without even blinking his array LED at the difference, conductors and processors already recalibrated to work with any possible model in existence.

Public omnic hatred had not changed much since the last time Mondatta had visited Xiaguan. At the time, Cheng’s laboratory had been rather scarce in spare parts, which made the cluttered mess around him far more impressive to Mondatta’s optical sensors as he glanced around, taking in the changes.

“My job makes this easier,” Cheng murmured as he gathered together some motherboard parts and started tinkering on a small hand-held computer attached to a big desktop screen. Lines of codes flashed on the flat screen for a few seconds, indicating different things related to models and upgrades. “I get paid, even if I’m not a cook yet”.

“Do you still wash the dishes?” Mondatta asked curiously, wanting to keep the conversation going.

“Nah, I had a small promotion and now I cut ingredients and clean the kitchen and the storage area,” there was a surge of pride in his tone, and Mondatta’s LED array flashed in mirth at that. “Tried serving the tables, but I made a mess and they don’t allow me at the front anymore”.

With methodical, practiced ease for his mismatched hands, Cheng slowly connected wires to Tekhartha’s body, the monitor flashing brightly at the info relay. Cheng made a whistling noise as the damage piled up for both of them to see.

“He took a severe beating, he’s lucky most of his servers and programs are still online and active, especially the connectors of his knees… I will be able to substitute both legs instead of moving up to his chest area, which would have been more dangerous,” Cheng moved to another box, extracting with ease a few spare parts that seemed to be the same model as Tekhartha. That seemed to set Cheng on track again. “Ah, yes. His batch mates, I did meet one, couple months ago”.

Mondatta leaned forwards, part of his subroutines focused on the minute work Cheng was doing on Tekhartha’s legs, gently unwrapping the last few cauterized wires to dislodge the legs from the knee down.

He placed them next to the table, looking down at them to categorize how damaged they were, and if he could savage them for parts later on.

“What happened to them?”

Cheng paused for a fraction of a second, then looked up. “Asked me to remove his thoracic chassis, that one did. Wanted away, even though we both knew they could not hide their identification number just by that, but they thought it’d help keeping a low profile, that way”.

Mondatta’s fans started up as he felt Tekhartha’s fears echo in Cheng’s words.

So, Tekhartha had not been the only one to notice something was wrong.

Cheng continued his methodical work of reassembling Tekhartha in silence, and Mondatta did not see fit to disturb him anymore; he watched, unmoving, as Cheng removed every damaged part of Tekhartha’s chassis and arms, popping the dents and working through broken wires and damaged circuits with precision and speed. It was reassuring to watch him work, the care it took him to reconnect every connector and wire of Tekhartha’s chest and then he removed his mangled arm.

Mondatta did move away at that, not wanting to get in the way.

The work continued on for a few hours. As neither was organic, they did not need to pause to eat or drink, and their mechanical brain made it possible for them to time their need for rest. Mondatta was tired, as he had been walking with Tekhartha on his back for a long while even before the lift on the van, but his energy reserves were still high and he would be fine until night time, while Cheng was optimizing his own battery without a problem.

With each little piece of Tekhartha that was restored to optimal condition, a fragment of worry Mondatta still harboured in his core unknotted and fell.

He had not been allowed to properly have a talk with Tekhartha, not with his constant need of rest and lack of a vocal box, but ever since that flicker of golden coming from him, Mondatta had known there was something there he would like to see explored, and even though he would worry for any omnic he saw hurt in front of him, Tekhartha was the first in a long while that he had interacted with at such an interpersonal level outside of the Shambali order.

During the first few years after the war, with the order still new, Mondatta had done his best to reach the hearts of as many humans and omnics as he could, but he had always had greater results when speaking to the masses as opposed to one-on-one. Expressing his views so many souls could be touched at the same time, speaking out and convincing crowds… that was his personal strength. It happened sometimes that he could help someone individually, like he had done with Cheng and his boss, Li, but usually he worked to appeal to as many people as possible, so that he could help change happen by spreading the teachings of his order far and wide.

The only ones he worked with were the students who arrived at his monastery, although it was rare for him to take a personal apprentice of his own, preferring to leave them to the others of his order, so… this unexpected meeting, witnessing Tekhartha’s strength with his own eyes… that felt like a gift from the Iris.

That Tekhartha could be fixed, ultimately with no lasting damage, assured him he would be able to properly talk with him and perhaps understand and further his fleeting connection to the Iris.

Mondatta observed in silence as Cheng recalibrated the many little offsets of Tekhartha’s programs and routines, but when he patted the side of his chest plate and moved to inspect his mangled arm, leaving most of the wiring uncovered, he spoke up. “Is there a problem with the chassis that prevents you from finishing the job?”

Cheng was startled out of his work and looked up. “Wh… oh, no, but I thought your order did not cover up by choice…?”

Mondatta shook his head, bringing his hands behind his back, clasped tightly. “Tekhartha does not belong to the Shambali order”.

“… yet,” Cheng added, tilting his head to the side. His hands had paused, hovering over the finished hand without reattaching it yet. “That is amusing. Will he?”

“That is not my choice to make, but it is my intention to let him know that path is open for him to take, if he so chooses,” Mondatta’s LED array flickered brightly for a moment, and Cheng’s own smaller array flashed in answer as the two shared a small, knowing smile.

“Well then, better fix him up real good so he can last until then,” Cheng briskly walked to a compartment against the opposite wall, sliding it open to reveal a line of metallic chassis assembled by size. “Do you think he would like to have a personalized mouth piece?”

“I am not sure, but you are free to wait until he is awake to let him choose,” Mondatta replied, then looked to the side. He had waited and observed for many hours as Cheng worked his magic, and Tekhartha did look far better now than he had before, so… “I will let you rewire the connectors of his legs on your own. I had not planned to return to Xiaguan, but as I am here now, I might as well go to the Embassy for a short visit”.

Cheng waved one hand his way, already taking pieces of metal and reassembling the chest plates and shoulder curves without looking up. “Door’s code is primary numbers minus thirteen, seventeen, twenty-three. I suggest to return before night falls. There have been manifestations not too far from here, and there’s guards everywhere”.

As Mondatta moved to the door, he could hear Cheng’s fans start up, a discordant sound of different brands working together at off-kilt intervals. “I will carve out a different identification number on an extra back plate and wait for him to wake so he can decide if he wants me to swap it with his own. As I told his batch mate, the registers and targeted scans will notice the code discrepancy, but surface scans will keep him covered just in case”.

Mondatta nodded, his gesture a bare tilt of his head. “Thank you”.

***

Tekhartha’s return to consciousness was, for the first time in over three days, completely painless.

His core heated and started working with a smooth transition, his fans kicking up with a quiet whirr, and his system booted up in a fraction of a second, setting his processors online and running a starting diagnostic check.

His signals returned positive –all his parts were functional, though there was a startling delay in response to the connectors of his arms which was logged in his data bank and needed to be addressed.

Tekhartha’s forehead LED array flickered on, each light starting up on its own, followed by a twitch of his legs, which he unintentionally braced himself for, only to relax when the motion did not bring him any pain or discomfort.

Mind clear of pain, Tekhartha relished in the feeling, then focused on the fact that he could _feel_ the movement of his legs, and the realisation flooded into him, relief blooming from his core all at once.

Tentatively flexing the wires of his legs, Tekhartha tested the new contacts to make sure he could control and feel the nodes and sensors past his knees again; they all seemed to work, no delay and no warnings flashing to his brain. He flickered the pain receptors on and off, pleased to see they were back to working full capacity, then he ran another specific diagnostic tool.

Again, his operating system signalled him everything was fine.

He set both his optical and auricular sensors on, and the relay feedback was instantaneous, filling his brain with information and an overwhelming amount of extra data, which he catalogued quickly, not wanting to clog his logs already after having being offline for so long.

A quick check of the time revealed he had been in stasis for over twenty-four hours, and if not for the fact that he felt fine, his battery replenished, and there was no lingering pain, he would have worried. His internal clock said it was evening of the next day, eight pm.

He lifted his arm slowly, noticing that the delay did not seem to prevent him from using them, but was displeased to realise his hands were trembling minutely, and clenching his fingers into a fist sent back a disappointing feedback –his arms did not seem to respond to his control as they had before, the grip only at ten percent strength… barely enough to hold a small tool.

Had his processors taken too much minute damage to be fixed? The thought washed through him like dread, and he denied it instantly, focusing on the more pressing fact that he still lacked a mouth piece, though the vocal box had been fixed and the curve of his face plate was pristine.

“Good evening, Tekhartha”.

Mondatta’s voice startled him and his head snapped to the side, noticing for the first time that he was not alone; Mondatta was sitting on a low stool, legs crossed and arms at his sides, index and thumb pressed together in the tell-tale meditation pose.

“Ah… g-oo-od ev… eni–ng,” his voice flickered weirdly, filled with static and white noise, and Tekhartha’s fans steamed in embarrassment as he cleared his voice box and recalibrated the sound after so much time without using it. He coughed softly before trying again. “Good evening, Master Mondatta”.

Inclining his head with a flash of LED lights for a smile, Mondatta shuffled back to his feet and walked to him, hands falling to his repaired shoulders to aid him into sitting up on the table. Tekhartha welcomed the touch, accepting it with a grateful tilt of his head. His brain processes felt a bit dizzy, but there was still no pain.

He felt like he had been rebuilt anew.

“It is nice to finally hear your voice, my dear,” Mondatta continued, and to Tekhartha’s surprise he found one hand delicately pressed against his forehead, the other on the side of his face. The touch was soft, and the sensors underneath the skin cover registered the touch as pleasant. “You were unconscious far longer than Cheng had anticipated, and I was worried for your health”.

The earnest tone made Tekhartha want to move away from the touch, and at the same time lean forwards. It had been long since he had met someone who had cared for his existence, let alone his operative status. He had known Mondatta was charitable and caring, but the plain honesty still left him reeling and grateful.

“I’m fine,” he reassured the other, testing his own words by shuffling his legs off the table and standing up.

Unlike his arms, his legs were steady, answering his impulse-control immediately, and the relief he felt at being able to walk again left him aching in his core.

He took a tentative step away from the table, then another when he did not immediately fall, then turned around and walked to the opposite wall; when he looked back at Mondatta he was truly hit by the reality of what that meant, and his voice box stuttered and cracked under the weight of his relief.

He could walk again. The one thing he had feared he had lost forever.

“I…” there was so much he wanted to say, the words bubbling up to his lips only to falter and fade into white noise, clogging his mind until he was left speechless, full of a bubbling happiness he could not convey.

Mondatta kept looking at him, his stance open and his LED array flickering softly, then he stepped towards him, and a second later Mondatta’s arms were wrapped around his shoulders, gently, allowing Tekhartha the time to move away if he so chose. Instead he fell forwards, welcoming the reassuring gesture and pressing his forehead against the outer part of Mondatta’s core.

“Thank you,” he murmured, modulating his voice to try and make Mondatta understand the depths of his gratitude – _how much all of this meant, how thankful he was, how_ – “I can walk again, only because you were there. I could have ceased to function in that alley, but you saved me, and made it so I could walk again. I… _thank you_ ”.

“My dear, the Iris itself sent me there, and I am glad to see you back in one piece again”.

Collecting himself, Tekhartha moved away from Mondatta’s arms, and offered him a bow before looking down at his arms, still shaking. Mondatta’s optical sensors tilted down to follow his gaze, and realised the problem.

“Cheng said there might be a delay between the processor units tied to your new arms and the feedback relay they send to your brain, and said the shaking will fade with time as you grow used to your new arms. Their model set is newer than yours, but the additional processor board he installed will acclimatize them and after that you will be able to function normally with no delay. He mentioned you might have some trouble ignoring the shaking at first, so I thought this might help”.

Tekhartha stared at him as Mondatta removed something from his kasaya and offered it to him; he reached out with one shaking hand, fingers slipping and weakly grasping at a small bracelet made of metallic beads. His optical sensors zoomed in a little, revealing omnic runes and mandala designs meticulously carved on the surface of each bead, barely visible if not to a mechanical eye.

The polished metal of the beads was heavy against his palm, and he could feel the magnetic pull of each, which made sure he would not drop the bracelet anytime soon. The weight itself was pleasant in his hand, grounding, their texture pleasing to the touch.

“If you find intolerable to focus on your shaking hands, maybe you can play with this instead, the fine tuning of your fingers will grow accustomed to their size and shape, and it will speed up your recovery until you have no more need for it,” Mondatta finished, sounding rather proud of himself. “They were selling those at the open market, though they allowed me to have one for free when they realised who I was, despite my attempts to pay for it. Alas, it is yours now, please consider it a get well gift”.

Tekhartha inclined his head, voice box once again reeling with an emotion so thick he could not speak.

He wondered if Mondatta was aware of how much such a thing was worth for him –the first thing Tekhartha could call his own again, after his clothes had been ripped from him and the few possessions he’d had before reaching Lijiang stolen and soiled.

He wondered if Mondatta did know, but chose not to direct any attention to it.

With careful, stilted motions, he caressed the beads, one by one, memorising their shape and feel as his sensors and nodes registered the details in his data banks. As he slid his thumb across the bracelet, he felt the smooth surface against the node sensors of his fingertips.

The mindless, repeated gesture felt pleasant. He liked it.

“Well then, I will call Cheng back in,” Mondatta moved away from him, still talking, and Tekhartha tried to not think about how he wanted to follow him, to keep no more than a few steps of distance between them. “He wanted you awake, there are a few things you need to know”.

Absently nodding, Tekhartha sat back down on the table, fingers still absently playing with the bracelet.

His optical sensors rolled down what he could see of his body, still reeling in awed shock at the fact that he was fixed, and could walk.

He had almost died in an alley, feeling like he had done not enough, like there was still so much more he could offer if only he could. Chances to take, help to offer.

When Jing-sheng’s underlings had attacked him, mercilessly frying his receptors before ripping his legs apart in such a vicious, painful way, Tekhartha had been afraid. The looming fear of being unable to walk had been a certainty –if he managed to drag himself to safety, the chances of finding someone who could repair his body for free would have been next to none, and the longer he went without help with his leg circuitry the less chance there would be to have the wires work, even switching legs with new ones.

Somehow that had not happened.

He had been saved and then he had received his mobility back, and could walk again… and all of it was thanks to Mondatta.

Whether Mondatta knew or not –whether he _cared_ about it, or not– Tekhartha owed him his life.

He would need to make sure that this life amounted to something good enough to make the great Tekhartha Mondatta proud.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up loving the one-time OC i created for this chapter, and his backstory, so i hope you ended up liking Cheng as well. He went against his original programming and found love in cooking, but nobody would hire an omnic for that, except Li. his restaurant isn't considered with much respect due to his own family tree and the fact that he employs omnics to work, but his little family is tight and respectful.
> 
>  **Dukkha (Pali):** \- Suffering, of pain, both mental and physical, of change, and endemic to cyclic existance; the first Noble Truth that acknowledges the reality of suffering.


	3. Chapter 03: Vicaya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited the prologue's notes to include this information, but I'm going to say it again here for clarification...
> 
> this fanfic is going to explore Zenyatta's background, but of course I'm not going to write every single day of his 20 years of age. The fic will be divided in three different arcs. The first deals with his meeting with Mondatta up until he becomes part of the Shambali, the second will deal with his teachings and learning about the Iris and his orbs (and might include brief appearances of some other characters from overwatch), and the third arc will be focused on his and Genji's paths intertwining.
> 
> Next chapter there's some action! For this one, you get some growth in Zenyatta and Mondatta's relationship.
> 
> I'd be delighted to know what you readers think of this fic so far! Don't be shy, I'd love to know your thoughts on it!

**Chapter 03: Vicaya**

 

Xiaguan was a busy city.

People roamed the streets from the early morning, buzzing around and starting their day even before the sun was fully up past the crown of mountains surrounding the area, and the impression was that of a city in constant movement.

The first few rays of sun peeked past the grey clouds, reflecting on the windows of the tallest buildings, hesitant into showing itself, but the air was warm already, wet with dew and the last remnants of the past night.

Tekhartha stood on the side of the street, sensors registering the temperature, the humidity and the wind strength, alerts that flashed in the back of his mind and were recorded in his memory logs for reference. He had no hurry to move, content in observing that little niche of the city that he could access from his safe spot, optical sensors flickering from one side of the street to the other.

With his receptors back at full capacity and functional, Tekhartha could register all the noise and the smells from the restaurant a few feet away from where he was standing, the enticing scent of meat dumplings and noodles mixing with the thick, oily smell of fried vegetables.

After a short talk with Cheng, who had allowed Tekhartha to pick a new mouth piece to install on his face and had offered him the choice to change his identification number plate with a different one, the other omnic had left Tekhartha and Mondatta behind to return to his chores at the restaurant, looking instantly happier now that his job at fixing Tekhartha was finally concluded.

With Mondatta also leaving for a round of encounters with locals, Tekhartha had been left alone in Cheng’s apartment, and instead of staying put, he had decided to leave the cramped place, and his feet had brought him back to the restaurant, where he had been hesitant to go in.

The memories of their first meeting were fresh in his memory banks, even if hazy from the pain and the low battery alerts, but Tekhartha could not easily forget the upset, empty sound of Cheng’s voice, his original programming bleeding into his circuits, staining them.

Tekhartha knew first-hand how that felt.

The weight of having had to accept help at the cost of Cheng’s wellbeing… yes, it had been his choice to offer them his aid, but that did not diminish Tekhartha’s guilt. He hoped the restaurant and Technician Li would be enough to silence the undercurrent, constant prodding of a resurfacing programming, and idly wondered if Mondatta ever felt his own resurface. He had often wondered what it was, for him.

The thoughts cluttering his mind were interfering with Tekhartha’s attempts to enjoy the view, so he forcefully terminated the thought processes and returned to his quiet appraisal of the street.

Standing there, he felt hidden from the rush of the street, the wall behind him a steady, secure reassurance, and he was able to focus on the people, on the view, on the myriad of input data he received, filing it all away quicker than before.

The area the restaurant was in looked new and modern, and there was a parking lot nearby with neat rows of cars and even a bike rack on the side, and on his right he could see Li’s restaurant main entrance, while further ahead there was a small kiosk of newspapers with a dog sleeping in the front, belly rolled up and looking completely at ease.

The sight was pleasant, and he felt the tension within his shoulders loosen.

As Tekhartha’s sensors shifted to look further into the distance, a movement coming from the front doors of the restaurant attracted his attention; one of the other omnics working there was shuffling out, dragging a signpost with the daily menu to the front. It was the tall omnic with grey and brown metal plates and the vibrant voice, Tekhartha recalled.

She placed the sign a few feet away from the restaurant doors, looking at it with a pleased flicker of her forehead array lights, then turned around and disappeared inside again.

The action was a small, casual one, but it highlighted the difference between Xiaguan and Lijiang enough that Tekhartha’s fans whirred into life, dispelling the sudden increase of heat in his core.

There was less hatred here –or at least it was not as visible, not as outright, as he had felt on his own body in Lijiang.

Shaking himself out of his trance, Tekhartha stepped out and into the streets, looking up at the cloudy sky with concern; he had hoped the weather would hold up enough for him to leave Xiaguan without trouble, but he was afraid it would rain, and that would make the trip uncomfortable…

“There you are, Tekhartha!”

Mondatta’s voice was laced with enough warmth and relief that Tekhartha visibly jumped, a flicker of guilt passing through his mind before he terminated the thought before it could fully form.

“You were not at Cheng’s apartment when I returned,” Mondatta’s pace was even as he walked closer, and Tekhartha fought the urge to look at him, concentrating instead on the floor in front of him. “I am glad you did not go too far, you’re not familiar with the city and I would not want you to get lost”.

Squaring his shoulders, wires tensing a bit as he straightened his spine, Tekhartha tried to hide the fact that the soft chiding had rubbed him wrong. “I needed some time to think about what to do next, Master Mondatta”.

“Indeed, Cheng’s news were troubling,” without missing a beat, Mondatta moved to his side, optical sensors sweeping across the street. “It seems like you were not the only one who noticed something wrong, and even with Cheng providing us with the new identification number your fellow batch mate has received, it will be impossible to find them and inquire about what they might know. We are at a bit of an impasse, my dear”.

Tekhartha stiffened, Mondatta’s casual use of the plural a dead giveaway. “Master Mondatta, this is nothing you need to concern yourself with. I am grateful you helped me, but I can’t let you get dragged into this”.

“Last time I looked, you were doing a good job of dragging yourself around on your own,” Mondatta replied without missing a beat, “I just had to pick up the pieces”.

The chiding in his tone rattled through Tekhartha’s core, sounding like a gentle scolding wrapped by a teasing edge.

“That was not the way I intended for things to go,” he answered, openly defensive. “Things just… spiralled away from me, but I could not have predicted an ambush. I think I have had a learning experience I would not wish to see repeated”.

“That will be for the best, as I did not enjoy having to worry about your continued existence this side of the Iris. It pleases me to know you’ll try hard to keep out of trouble now, but that does not mean you have to do everything on your own… or were my words so bland that you can easily forget them?”

“Master Mondatta, I–” Tekhartha hastily corrected his voice box levels, his tone faltering as he paused. “No, I received the message clearly, but I fear for your safety”.

“My dear, as any other omnic in this world, my safety will be compromised as long as we cannot coexist alongside humans, so I am afraid the road is still long and impervious.” Mondatta leaned forwards, pressing one hand over Tekhartha’s chest plates, right above his core. “Our meeting was granted by the Iris, and I do not think it was a coincidence that I happened upon you as I did. I feel it would be a great disservice if I allowed you to walk away when I can do something to help”.

Tekhartha was visibly split –on one side, he wanted to spare Mondatta what could be something dangerous that had nothing to do with him, while on the other, he felt Mondatta’s presence at his side like a supportive warmth, and his own feelings of respect and awe at Mondatta’s relentless work spoke for themselves.

His optical sensors flickered to the side, where Mondatta was waiting, calm and collected, with his hands clasped behind his back.

Even standing there, he looked to Tekhartha as if he was a part of something bigger than anything Tekhartha could reach, separate and better; his kasaya was frayed, and there were stains of oil that marred its previous pristine state, and Tekhartha found his attention focusing on those blotches, aware that it was his oil that had ruined Mondatta’s clothes.

On the matter of clothes, that he wore any or not did not bother Tekhartha much –his body was that of an omnic, and covering it did nothing to hide who he was, not to mention how there was nothing visible that humans could consider offensive or ‘revealing’ to the eye, but what little he had owned to wear had been ripped and ruined during the first few weeks of his job, and he had never replaced it.

Still, the feeling of fabric over his body had been pleasant to have on him again, but he regretted that he had soiled something Mondatta owned. He had nothing on him to pay him back for that.

“Do you have any idea how to proceed from there?” noticing that Tekhartha had yet to answer, and not knowing where his thoughts had taken him, Mondatta spoke up again, making him focus back on the problem at hand.

“No,” he admitted, shoulders dropping as the tension in his wires relaxed. “I had followed hunches to Lijiang but from there on, I have nothing left. I do not know where any of the others from my batch are, but the fact that someone else noticed something is wrong means the ones I was in contact with might not be the only ones who disappeared”.

Mondatta nodded, the array LED on his forehead dimming to a soft glow. “It might be foolish to hope to find someone who does not want to be found, so we should give up on the omnic that Cheng met. We might have to do something a little more drastic, I fear”.

Tekharta did not like Mondatta’s continuous use of the plural, but in the little time he’d spent with him he had grown to realise that Mondatta would not let him go so easily, so instead of pushing back, he relented, allowing himself to feel warmed by Mondatta’s honest desire to help.

“Most of my batch were sent to big cities, that I know of,” he said, tilting his head to look at the street again. “It was not a batch selected for rural work. The ones I kept in contact with had similar designations –one was meant to be a night guard in a museum, two were sent to be clerks in malls or public places, and the one I followed to Lijiang had initially worked for a moving company, but had stopped working there and moved on by the time I arrived to the city”.

He ignored the sound of optical sensors zooming on him with a soft click, and was grateful that Mondatta did not ask him what his own designation had been. The thought was still uncomfortable, and he hoped to be able to move on from there.

“It might not mean much, but there is also to consider the area your batch was assigned to,” Mondatta said instead, and Tekhartha was surprised to feel a hand press against his shoulder, heavy and reassuring. “If the remaining omnics were sent to the same precinct or district, then it might make it easier for us to track them down”.

He did not say it out loud, though both he and Tekhartha were thinking the same thing –if they could track down the others from Tekhartha’s batch using the designation area codes, it would be the same for whoever was targeting them.

“First we need to go to the Regional District Bureau of Technology, and luckily for us there’s a branch of it right here in this city,” Mondatta straightened his back and removed his hand from Tekhartha’s shoulder, moving away. “If there are any of your batch stationed here in Xiaguan, then I might have an idea on how to meet with them”.

This startled Tekhartha enough that his head snapped to look at Mondatta, the joints in his neck creaking at the sudden movement.

“Let us walk together then, Tekhartha,” Mondatta motioned for him to step out into the street, fingers splayed out in an inviting gesture. “Allow me to guide you through this city, and maybe this walk will do us both some good”.

Nodding his assent, Tekhartha followed Mondatta out into the street, his uncovered feet making no sound against the cement of the road as he walked at Mondatta’s side, feeling almost hesitant with the glaring difference in their stances as he did so.

Mondatta walked with his back held straight, hands clasped together behind his back, gait relaxed, and Tekhartha admired him for that, for how elegant he looked, and poised. There was no chance for him to even try and imitate him, so he did not even try, simply walking at his side and keeping his attention focused on their surroundings instead, not wanting to get fooled into inattention.

He had not been to Xiaguan ever before, but it looked no different than Lijiang had been, or Xining before that. Tall buildings, people rushing by, the familiar smells of food and life mixing together with pollution and the noise of cars and people.

“Tell me, Tekhartha,” Mondatta’s voice was quiet, low but compelling, “what made you leave your designated city?”

Tekhartha tilted his head to the side, considering. He had not been asked about his programming, or his job, and answering was tied to that, but also… “You,” he answered honestly, and his next words were coloured with mirth at the visible startled whirr from Mondatta. “Surely that is not surprising?” there was still a lingering sort of awkwardness in his core at sharing a name with Mondatta, but it was slowly melting away through Mondatta’s casual using it to address him, enough for him to lightly joke about it. “I had harboured the desire to do something… not about myself, or my situation as I was already…” his voice glitched out, which took him by surprise.

His pace faltered for a split second and he was aware of Mondatta’s optical sensors focused on him. He straightened his back and regulated his voice box again, but kept silent for a few seconds more, worried that his voice would still come out bitter.

“There should be a choice,” he finally said, relieved that his tone did not waver.

He remembered, the memory of Mondatta’s face so vivid in his data banks, carved so deeply in his logs that he doubted it would ever disappear, the first time he had seen one of Mondatta’s sermons aired on television.

Tekhartha did not have a name yet then, or a proper identity –he still went by his identification number, because the thought of naming himself while still working there had felt vile. His name would mean a new him, and he would not be new for as long as he kept to that programming. He had been waiting for a long time already, fighting against indecision and not knowing where to go or what to do if he ever managed to leave.

Mondatta’s face had wobbled weirdly, the old flat-screen in a corner of the room flickering with bad reception and age, but the sound had been clear, and Mondatta’s voice had vibrated through the air, reaching into Tekhartha’s core like an arrow.

The thought had been growing within him for a long time already, hidden away within the confines of his mind, but seeing someone so open and vocal, fighting for omnics to have a chance to be considered equal to humans…

It had offered him _hope_ , and hearing some of his thoughts spoken freely with no hesitation… something had clicked inside his brain, circuits overheating, and for one second, Tekhartha had felt his programming dim under the onslaught of other thoughts, a flood that had silenced the impositions built into his system until they were blissfully quiet.

He had recorded the speech through his sensors without even realising it, a copy preserved in a private network file, encrypted so it would not be corrupted.

A week later, Zenyatta had attempted to leave for the first time.

Mondatta seemed to understand what Tekhartha was not saying, because he nodded, and again he offered a silent gesture of acceptance and support, one hand wrapping around his arm.

“It is all we ask, is it not?” his voice was still quiet, but had raised in volume a notch, and there was a sparkle of something there that made him sound more _alive_. “A choice. To be able to enjoy this life that was given to us without an option, make our own mistakes and grow from them, because even if we are made of circuits and metal rather than skin and bones, are we not alive as much as any human? Do we not think, or experience pleasure and emotions as they do? We make no demands, we ask to be considered alive, we just ask… a partnership”.

Tekhartha felt his core de-pressurize in his thoracic cavity. He felt emptier and fuller at the same time, like a weight had been lifted from him and replaced with something firmer.

“So you see, my dear, how I could not let you leave on your own?” Mondatta was smiling, LED array bright and tone light and full of warmth, almost satisfied. “We walk the same path, from different starting points, so why should we walk by ourselves when together we can do so much more?”

It was such a small thing –words and a gentle gesture of reassurance, but Tekhartha felt like there was a seed planted in the centre of his core that was growing, and he dared to hope, as he followed Mondatta through the crowded streets of Xiaguan, that perhaps whatever sapling would come from that seed would be able to eclipse his insecurity, and offer him the roots he needed to build his life from there.

***

“Thank you for your help,” Mondatta’s voice travelled to where Tekhartha was sitting, attracting his attention.

He had been unable to sit still while Mondatta spoke with the technicians in charge of the Bureau Office, and as there was nothing to attract his attention in the sterile waiting hall, Tekhartha had instead focused on his hands.

There had been hope that the trembling would subside quickly and that his limbs would regain their previous strength, but it seemed like it would take more than a couple days to recalibrate correctly, and in the meantime he was left on his own to try and ignore the shaking.

It was difficult –these were his arms, his hands, part of his body, and he was used to having his circuits obey him, not resist the orders filtering through his circuits. Even holding a magazine from one of the racks in the corner was difficult, fingers unable to muster the correct amount of pressure needed to hold up the pages, and it made his frustration grow.

So in the end he had slipped off his bracelet, fingers running across the metallic beads one by one. The magnetic pull kept the bracelet from rolling out of his hand and allowed him to exercise and test pressure sensors and sensitivity in his fingertips, and just like before, the repetitive movements slipped under his radar, calming him down.

One bead, then the next, fingers sliding across each sphere, memorising the feeling and inspecting the texture of the carved runes and drawings. Different omnic types had varying degrees of sensitivity in their limbs and bodies, and Tekhartha’s model was not one who had needed all the extra sensors, but the arm he had received in exchange for his mangled one had new sensor inputs that were a novelty for his brain, and learning to read them kept him busy.

He could recognise the runes carved into the beads by touch alone, which spoke of a degree of quality for his hand that was astounding to him. If he switched hands, the other hand could feed far less information to his data banks… it was almost disappointing.

Tekhartha idly wondered if he could get an upgrade in the future for his left hand as well, so he could match quality for both of his arms.

As it was, there was no way he could afford that, but maybe if he found a job somewhere… after all, Cheng was working at a restaurant, and did get paid. For sure, Tekhartha could find something agreeable that he could do well.

The triviality of his thoughts surprised him, and he hastily terminated the thought process.

What good would it do to have two hands that could feel things to this level anyway? Wasn’t this vain for him to desire?

Without warning, he terminated the subroutine sensors for his new hand, dulling its sensitivity  until it was the same as before, and locked the activity so they would not reset whenever he went through his sleep cycle.

The reduced sensibility felt like cutting off part of the world, but the inanity of his thoughts had scared him, and he did not need to focus so much on something irrelevant when there were better things to concentrate on.

Mondatta walked towards him and he hastened to stand up, metallic joints clacking as he did so. There was a smile in the flicker of array lights on Mondatta’s forehead and the tilt of his head, and Tekhartha hoped it meant there were good news for him.

“I’m sorry it took me this long,” Mondatta apologized to him, motioning for the entrance of the building. “There was… an unexpected problem in retrieving the files I was interested into, so the workers here had to compile some extra paperwork for the hassle”.

Tekhartha looked at him in askance, but did not speak up, following Mondatta out of the building. The door clicked shut behind them, and Tekhartha expected to be debriefed right away, but Mondatta walked away in silence, pace unhurried and relaxed, so there was nothing he could do but follow along.

‘Do not appear alarmed now, my dear,’ the sudden sound of binary beeped at him at low frequency threatened to startle Tekhartha, but thankfully he was still idly fidgeting with the bracelet, and he was able to pass off the reaction as a casual movement. ‘We might have touched the tip of a much bigger problem, but I feel like we will be fine if we stay out in the open. May I suggest a walk to a local park? There is a beautiful one nearby where we might sit and contemplate the beauty of the world as we meditate –it is a relatively unsuspicious activity for a monk and his apprentice and it might help dispel some doubts in case we are being followed’.

The sliver of worry inside Tekhartha’s core seized his immediate thought circuits, but Mondatta did not appear to be worried, so he pushed down his fear and attempted to portray a relaxed, carefree persona.

‘Is this what you told them?’ he asked, unable to keep quiet until the park. Their binary pathways was low enough in frequency that it was virtually undetectable by human ears, so he felt rather safe to reply to Mondatta in such a way.

Mondatta tilted his head to look at him, and even if binary could not convey emotions, Tekhartha had the impression he was amused.

‘There are times when it is better to shield your true intentions, and let others believe what they will. Or downright lie, that’s an option too,’ he added after a brief pause. ‘As far as the helpful workers at the Bureau Office know, I asked to look into the list of identification numbers and their assignation area because we are looking for a thief who stole from the Shambali, and we are searching for them in order to bring them to their proper justice without bringing the case to human court, as it is for omnics to deal with’.

Tekhartha’s head snapped to look at him, then hastily looked away, fans whirring up in embarrassment.

‘I… I did not expect you to lie to someone,’ he admitted, almost reluctantly. ‘And they believed you?’

‘Of course. Having such an upstanding reputation does aid whenever one needs to be able to slip by unnoticed, if the need arises.’ Mondatta’s tone was still emotionless, binary precluding Tekhartha from understanding what he was thinking, but the words left him hesitant, and he slowed down, trailing behind Mondatta for a moment.

He had not expected such words to come from Mondatta –not that he considered lying intrinsically bad, but he had never thought about lying as something that Mondatta would do, and he was aware that Mondatta had chosen to lie specifically to protect Tekhartha, as his identification number put him in possible danger.

That thought rattled through him and his fans stuttered up in answer, his core heating up in shame.

Mondatta stopped and spun around, and Tekhartha was once again startled when he found himself enveloped in a hug, confusion making his processors click in surprise.

‘Do not think that I condone lies used to bring harm or hurt to others,’ Mondatta was still speaking in binary, but this close, Tekhartha could feel the whirring of his core vibrate against the outer plates of his own chassis, warm and reassuring. Then Mondatta released him from the hug, but took hold of Tekhartha’s hand, feeling its tremors and holding it gently. ‘But there is no shame in being careful, and sometimes lies will keep you or someone dear safe. Do never pick honesty when you have to choose between protecting yourself, or others, or upholding some moral standard that does not belong to you. It is not the lie that will cause harm, but the intention behind it, and surviving means one more day on this side of the Iris that can be devoted to do good’.

Tekhartha started to reply, but Mondatta tightened his hold on his hand in a gentle reproach.

‘I did lie, but this is not the first time I do so, and I have lied in the past for less important reasons, too. More than that, I do not consider that a fault of yours to bear. I promise you though, that I would not lie about something like this, or to you. My concern is real, and so is my worry, and this does not mean I’d lie on a daily basis for the sake of it… that would be tiring, would it not?’

The lights of his forehead array were burning brightly, and Tekhartha dazedly looked at him, and felt the sheer, utter intensity of Mondatta’s stare, the conviction that passed through his binary and into him like a binding connection, more so because Tekhartha was convinced that he was smiling, too.

The hand holding his let go, clothes fluttering around him as Mondatta spun around and started walking again.

After a second to collect himself, fans still whirring, Tekhartha hurried to catch up with him, back at his side, and caught the way Mondatta’s forehead array was flickering in a soothing pattern.

‘Alas, there is much to worry about,’ Mondatta spoke again, addressing the problem once more. ‘The list of identification numbers pertaining to the Qinghai Omnium was unfortunately corrupted and unusable,’ he was looking ahead and his pace was still even, but there was a tension in his shoulders that even Tekhartha noticed. ‘When I asked to see the printed copy that is usually kept at every branch for index purposes, they were unable to find the book, nor did they find the extra copies digitally made and indexed in the Bureau Network’.

Tekhartha’s fingers clenched down on his bracelet, slipping through the beads as he tried not to look as distressed as he felt.

‘So…’

‘This fact understandably made the workers worry, and they sent a request to the other branches through their interconnected network, and unfortunately the answer they received was the same –the codes and area listing for your Omnium batch have disappeared from the records as if they never existed’.

That… made no sense.

There were no less than twenty branches of the Bureau of Technology scattered around China, and they kept a meticulous eye on every file they had, especially the ones pertaining to Omnics and all the Omnium locations. Tekhartha hadn’t even known there was one in Xiaguan before Mondatta had mentioned it, as the only one he knew of was in Chengdu.

More so, after the theft of the Nuclear Core from the Qinghai Omnium, stricter rules had been applied to security all around the nation. It made no sense that an entire batch of information could disappear like this without anyone noticing until an omnic had pointed it out.

‘This…’ Tekhartha fought the urge to look around him, his circuits crawling with the sudden need to check for anyone following them. ‘This is not possible, not from so many different locations’.

‘Indeed, and this baffled the workers at the branch as much as it did the ones they spoke with on the phone. There might be some copies located in international branches, but finding the files with such short notice would be impossible, so I did not press further in that direction,’ Mondatta continued, then paused and pointed ahead of them with one hand.

“There we are, my dear,” he said out loud, keeping his tone even as he led Tekhartha across a street and into the green area of the local park. “This will be a nice spot to meditate, is it not?”

Tekhartha felt the weight against his core intensify at Mondatta’s casual indifference, and his core whirred louder, shoulders tensing as he followed the other omnic into the park.

His feet registered the different texture under them as he moved from cement to grass, and he was momentarily thrown off by the rush of new information that he had neglected to register before. After a moment of hesitation, he logged the stream of info, lingering on it, then shut down the sensibility of his feet the same way he had with his hand.

It would do him no good to be distracted.

The park was a beautiful area, full of lush patches of grass and trees spreading their branches into the air, with pathways clean and polished in white marble and pretty statues everywhere, some of them depicting modern abstract art while others sticking to traditional figures, like qirins or dragons.

There were people coming and going even at this time of the day, families with kids and teenagers having fun, and there were even a few omnics, though the ones that Tekhartha noticed were cleaning out the trash cans into the distance, and left shortly thereafter.

Tekhartha followed Mondatta into a patch of grass, and sat with him under a tree. He looked around, appreciating the sight for a moment and wondering if it could have looked even better in a sunny day, then let the thought go.

He folded his legs neatly in front of him, then hesitated when Mondatta slid down in the lotus position. He failed to see how imitating him would fool anyone watching into thinking they were master and apprentice, as most people would not take care of the exact sitting pose required for meditation, but in the end he fumbled and imitated him anyway.

“Allow your core to expand and the tense circuitry of your body to relax,” Mondatta instructed him, and Tekhartha hesitated again. “With every pulse coming from your centre, let your thoughts scatter into the air like birds, leaving behind only empty perches swaying in the wind”.

Meditation had never been something he had tried, and there were far too many thoughts cluttering his brain to be able to empty it and attempt to meditate, even if it was for appearance.

“I am not… familiar with any method to clear my mind, Master Mondatta,” he admitted uneasily.

Mondatta looked visibly startled before he spoke again, “then I think focusing on sound will aid you greatly in your pursue for an empty mind”.

His voice box flickered into a humming sound, a continuous, low baritone that seemed to vibrate into the air and reach the depths of Tekhartha’s core. For a second Tekhartha faltered, brain latching on the repetitive sound that his protocol pathways categorized as soothing, then…

‘Forgive me for assuming you would follow my prompting,’ Mondatta’s binary was a little subdued under the sound of his humming, which did not require any intake of breath, but it was still understandable. ‘Meditation is for me like breathing is for humans, I forgot for a moment that we were not supposed to meditate for real and treated you as I would any of my apprentices’.

The confession was so surprising and absurd that Tekhartha chuckled, unable to help it. it was a soft, startled sound that he cut short when he realised he’d just laughed at Mondatta, steam rising from the vents of his body in shame as he looked down to his lap.

‘Please do not stifle your laughter, even when it is at my expense. There is no respect greater than the one offered through a shared laugh, for I know you were not laughing against me but at my silly mistake,’ Mondatta’s body language told Tekhartha that he was amused even when his binary could not convey that. ‘As it is, you had little reason to laugh in your life, so I hope from now on you might find chances to do so as often as possible’.

Tekhartha fumbled a bit, fingers tightly clasped around the bracelet he was still holding, feeling almost dizzy with embarrassment, and yet underneath that, there was a knot of happiness that Mondatta’s words had brought to light.

‘I fear there will be little reason to laugh now, though,’ Mondatta made sure he had Tekhartha’s full attention again before continuing. ‘Once it became clear the data missing was the same for every database, the question became ‘why would this particular information disappear?’ and there was no answer. I think that, unfortunately, the same people who seem so focused into finding your batch mates might be far more spread than we expected, if they could easily delete the files from every branch of the Bureau’.

Tekhartha shuddered, shoulders shaking under the weight of this new information.

‘It might be… the same people,’ he offered hesitantly, glad that the binary could not show how rattled he was at the news. ‘The ones who stole the Omnium core’.

‘There is no proof as of yet of a correlation between the two,’ Mondatta corrected, tilting his head to the side and looking right at him, the inflection of his humming growing in volume for a second, ‘but the chance of it is very high, and that we are talking about some kind of organization… but that does not mean anything unless we find proof, nor do we know what they might do with the possession of a nuclear core if they are also tracking down omnics belonging to it’.

For a few seconds neither spoke, and Tekhartha focused on the humming sound instead, letting it wash over him, soothing his worry and his circuits’ tension until the mess of thoughts inside his brain calmed down and his processes returned to working without clutter.

His fingers continued their unconscious fidgeting with his bracelet, the movement familiar and reassuring to hide the almost constant shaking of his hands caused by his processes reassigning themselves and his overheating.

‘It might not be an anti-omnic faction,’ he said after a while. ‘After all, the omnic that I found disabled might be unrelated with the disappearance of the others, and the one who Cheng encountered could have reasoned the same as I did before, but…’

‘Yes,’ Mondatta answered, nodding. ‘It could be something else entirely, but I would prefer to thread carefully in either case. If the ones who destroyed the files left behind some of their accomplices, it might be better not to attract too much attention. That aside…’ Mondatta leaned forwards, offering Tekhartha his hand.

With a confused tilt of his head, Tekhartha reached out halfway with his own outstretched hand, surprised when Mondatta’s finger bypassed his palm to slot into the curve of his wrist, right against one of his wire ports.

There was a soft sound, and then Tekhartha’s brain flared up as data was transmitted through an external network directly into his processors, stored within his data banks. He accessed it quickly, uncovering a long list of numbers and designation points, more info than he’d ever wanted to have about his own batch.

He ran through the numbers one by one, connecting the dots between the specifications for the programming of each of them and the geographical code they had been sent to, and only stopped when he found his own number, fingers twitching in recognition.

His area of designation was, of course, labelled as ‘Xining, Qinghai’, followed by his programming label. He ignored it, as he’d barely had a few weeks to work there before he’d been…

He disengaged himself from the data stream and closed the file down, optical sensors flickering back to focus on the outside world, and found Mondatta looking at him, his hand still wrapped around his wrist.

With a nod, Tekhartha watched Mondatta detach his finger from his wire port and move away.

‘Didn’t you say–’

‘Fortunately for us, there was a backup file log created a month ago during an upgrade of the local branch’s computer OS to a newer version, and they were able to recover the data SD cards from a drawer. It took them a few tries to find the right one, and I made a copy when they were busy uploading the files into their servers’.

Mondatta could not show his satisfaction with his expressions, but the way he straightened his back, head tilted up, definitely conveyed that emotion without a change in tone or a face.

Tekhartha bumped up the protocols for his maintenance and expelled steam from his vents, regulating his core heat and calming down.

‘There are three omnics that have been assigned to Xiaguan’s area –we do not have the specifics about their exact location, considering the size of this county and the possibility that one of more of them were sent to Dali, but knowing they were sent to this city means we might have the chance to find out if they are still here, or not,’ Mondatta spoke up again, and Tekhartha hastily opened the file again, zooming on the omnics he was talking about. ‘Your number and theirs are towards the end of the list, while the omnic that met with Cheng is around the top. Which ones are the omnics you already know about?’

Tekhartha double checked to be sure. ‘They are all at the top, except… the one that ceased to function,’ he said, binary faltering. ‘Whatever is happening, whoever is making them disappear, might be doing so in chronological order of creation, so… we might have a chance to find these omnics first and warn them’.

‘That gives us some time. I will give Cheng this list and ask him to interface with a wider network in order to check if there have been omnics disappearing and their logs signed as offline, but as for how to track down the ones in this district area…’

Mondatta unwind from his sitting position with a fluid movement, the soft humming coming from his voice box fading into silence. Tekhartha hastened to stand up as well, doing so with less grace and feeling awkward and cramped, his wires tense for the unfamiliar position and his auricular sensors strangely empty now that the humming was gone.

“Well then, my dear,” Mondatta spoke up again, soft and gentle and everything Tekhartha admired in him, shoulders squared and head held high. “It is time to prepare a speech”.

That brought Tekhartha’s brain into a full stop. “I’m… sorry, Master Mondatta, but… what?”

A flicker of a smile in his LED array, head tilted to look at him, Mondatta chuckled. “Of course. What better way to attract all omnics and all humans to us if not through a speech? I had no intentions to put myself into public view during this travel, but I would be glad to make an exception in this case, and it would offer us a chance to interact with those we seek, would it not?”

Without waiting for Tekhartha to answer, Mondatta stood up, wiping down his clothes from stray grass blades, and started walking away.

Numbly, Tekhartha hastened to follow him, left speechless by Mondatta’s casual decision.

***

There was a car parked in front of the entrance.

Every time Tang looked up from where he was sweeping the floors, he could see it outside of the giant glass doors of the hall, parked a little on the side, out of the way.

It did not belong to any of the workers at the Chengdu Panda Base, but Tang had noticed it for the first time over a week before, as he parked his bike on the rack against the wall in the early morning. The only reason he had noticed it was because there was a tiny dangling turtle charm against the window on the driver’s seat side, and turtles were Tang’s favourite animals.

Pandas were ok, but it wasn’t like he saw much of them, since his job at the Research Base was to clean, sweep the floors, empty trash cans and make sure all the lights were off when he left at night, after his second shift.

The car was always parked in the same spot near the bike rack, so Tang had grown used to seeing it, even though there was never anyone in the car and he had never met its owner; when he arrived at the base for his morning shift the car was already there, and when he left by midday it was still in the same spot. Those days he worked in the evening shift were the same, so he had concluded the owner of the car had some sort of full-time job they were doing at the Base, and left it at that.

Today was different, though –ever since he’d seen the car the first time it had always been parked outside near his bike rack, but as he had arrived for his morning shift, the car was nearby the entrance instead, in one of the lots assigned to the workers of the Base.

That was… strange, even Tang had no explanation for that. If the boss had wanted to hire someone new, they would have introduced the new employee to the other workers as usual.

The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was a rather well known non-profit facility situated in Chengdu, Sichuan, and had been systematically improving the panda population since the late nineties of the previous millennium. During the past one hundred years of work the Base had managed to help the existing colonies of captive pandas triple in number since the start of the millennium, and had since then expanded to include other rare animals.

It had expanded further with funds given by the International Cooperation Animal Act, and since then it had started to employ twice as many workers as before in order to cope with the enormous amount of work required for the upkeep.

Tang was only one of the many trained employees of the facility, and his task was a rather simple one, all things considered. He just cleaned things up.

The main hall of the research base was big, and it was divided in two areas –the touristic entrance and the section with the offices, that split up and led to the veterinarian bay, the research lab and the nursery. The open gardens on the back had doubled in size, and the current panda population held there was of twenty, including two babies born only months earlier.

As only the certified workers were allowed down the corridor to the facility, Tang had never set foot in there, nor had he interacted with any of the animals on the property.

“Good morning, Tang,” the familiar metallic voice had Tang look up from where he had been swiping the floors until moments earlier, and he smiled at the sight of the short, buff omnic that was coming his way.

“Good morning, Dawa,” he greeted back, stretching his back with a pop.

Dawa was an employee with full clearance to the breeding area, and was one of the five omnics with the required authorizations to work at the Base; she was pleasant to talk to, and always greeted Tang every time they met in the hallway. It was always nice to exchange pleasantries on the job, it made working a little less boring.

Today, though, Dawa seemed strangely subdued. Ever since she had started working at the Base, she had been a cheerful lad, curious about everything, particularly fond of the baby pandas, and one of the favourites for the viewers of the 24/7 Panda Cam, since the pandas seemed to love lounging on omnics more than they did on their human co-workers.

She did not look cheerful at all now, and Tang noticed that her appearance was more crumpled than usual, head lowered forwards and shoulders hunched almost defensively as she clutched a stack of papers in her arms.

Tang looked at her, confused.

“Dawa, is everything ok?” his accent, usually barely noticeable, became thicker as he spoke, worry clear in his tone. “You look… worried”.

His words seemed to startle her and she glanced down at her papers before looking back up at him, slanted eyes zooming on him before her head tilted sideways to look past his shoulder and out of the main entrance.

The research bay was quieter on Saturdays than it was during the rest of the week. Most workers went home to rest and the shifts started later in the day, with the omnic workers taking up the feeding and the nursing shifts, if there were any babies in the facility. There had been a lot of visitors from Monday to Friday, so Tang had been tasked with an extra shift in the middle of the day to clean up the clutter they’d left behind, but with Saturday came the weekend, and he was looking forwards to have the rest of the day and all of Sunday to rest.

As it was, so early in the morning, there were only five employees present at the facility. Two were security guards, one was Tang, and two were omnics.

The place was deserted, and it would open up to tourists and visitors later, so her behaviour seemed strange to him.

“I… Tang, did you see that car out there?”

Tang blinked, surprised at the question. “Yea, it’s been around for a week now, but today it moved to the front. Haven’t seen who drives it once since it’s been around. Have you?”

Dawa winced, and Tang heard the familiar sound of fans starting up. “I… I don’t feel safe,” she said, her voice quiet. “I saw them once, they were talking with the director Monday. I don’t think they like me very much”.

“Now that can’t be right, you’re a right piece of machinery, if I can say so,” Tang winked at her, hoping to cheer her up, but when she did not react, still looking past him and out of the windows, he sighed. “Tell you what, why don’t you go stay in the security room for a bit? I’ll go warn Jean, I think he’s outside for a smoke, an’ tell him to make a round inside to make sure nothing’s wrong and then keep you some company”.

His offer seemed to have a reaction at least, and Dawa nodded hastily, the one-point array on her forehead flashing purple. She looked at the papers in her hands and hesitated. “I’ll put these down first, but I’ll feel better if Jean checks where these people are. They don’t seem that interested in our pandas, I don’t know what the director is doing, letting them stay this long around…”

With that, she turned around and hurried down the hall, towards the offices in the private area. Tang watched her go, then sent a wary look at the car parked outside before walking out from the back, searching for the security guard.

Dawa felt somewhat reassured at the fact that Tang would know where she was. There was no real reason for her wariness around the men that had arrived earlier the previous week, but the way they kept staring at her and her omnic co-worker had grated to her circuits. The gaze always felt less than civil to her, and it was obvious there was a shift in mood whenever an omnic was in the same room as them.

The director of the research base was an omnic sympathizer, and kept at least two omnics always on hand to fill in for more delicate roles, so Dawa had no idea why he was tolerating the presence of someone so clearly biased against omnics in the faculty.

She worked just as hard as her human counterparts, but the constant looming presence of those two men wore down on her nerves. She usually got along easily with others, but she could do nothing with people who looked down on her except stay strong and ignore them, but… she would be happier when they left for good.

The two men in the white car had arrived earlier than she did, and were somewhere in the Base, but the fact that nobody was around made Dawa feel unsafe and restless, so much that she could not even focus on her job.

Yes, staying in the control room with Jean and Cheng would settle her nerves and when the director arrived, she would speak to him about her worries. He would do something, she was sure of it.

The office door was slightly ajar, but in her haste to drop the documents, Dawa did not take notice of it.

As usual the desks were messy and disorganized, with paperwork and flyers scattered everywhere, but she made a point of putting the papers she was holding in a neat pile, not wanting to add to the already existing chaos.

There was a television in the office, usually switched on the local news channel, and as she made her way back to the door, its projected screen flickering in the air attracted her attention. The volume was off, but the news rolled across the lower part of the screen as the cameras of the news channel zoomed on a familiar face.

Without thinking, Dawa tapped the television on the side, interfacing with the machine and turning the volume up enough that she could listen to the report.

“–and Tekhartha Mondatta, leader of the Shambali order, spoke with the local authorities of Xiaguan yesterday evening, expressing his wish to have a peaceful exchange with the city and its inhabitants. His presence in Xiaguan was unannounced due to his personal desire to keep a low profile, but he later expressed a change of heart,” the announcer was speaking still, the camera focused entirely on Mondatta’s emotionless face. “The Shambali practice of openly speaking against omnic segregation and preaching for equality caused the order’s rise to the public eye in the recent years, and Tekhartha Mondatta’s relentless work to spread his pacifist message has put him in a unique position which he strives to maintain and cultivate, in order for his wishes to come true in a nearby future”.

Archived images and videos belonging to old speeches of Mondatta flashed on the screen in rapid succession, showing the growth of his followers and sympathizers from around the world, though there were also less pleasant images of protests and violent outbursts following his speeches across the countries.

“Due to the extreme security measures needed in order to maintain order during a public speech, the designated area will be monitored strictly by local security services deployed by the city council,” the anchor-woman continued, her tone somewhat enthused. “Monday morning will be an exciting moment for Xiaguan, as the city had already hosted a similar speech in the past, and the reception had been positive, with little protests”.

Dawa felt her core heat up at the thought of Tekhartha Mondatta, leader of the Shambali order, being so close to Chengdu. Xiaguan was less than a day away by car, and with high speed trains she could actually manage to be at the speech and back home in time for her next shift on Monday evening.

It was the chance of a lifetime for her, since every time Mondatta had left the monastery in Nepal, she’d been too far to go see him. A chance to see one of the Shambali speak for her rights as well as those of her fellow omnics… she wanted to be _there_.

There would be local coverage at least, and if the news were already spreading past China’s borders, international news services would want to be there. It was a sudden, unexpected situation, anyone close by would want to go and be part of it. The last time Mondatta had held a public speech it had been a subdued affair over a year before, following a protest that had ended with three humans and ten omnics dead. Dawa still remembered watching the news on television, her core aching for the lives that had been lost for nothing.

Her array flickered purple in a smile, wondering how would Mondatta look in person.

The hand wrapping around her throat caught her by surprise, and so did the pressure against her voice box, a sudden weight that pushed against the sensors at the base of her neck and sent a wave of pain up her frame, joints rattling as she fell back, attempting to avoid it.

Someone was behind her –someone tall and human, dressed in black– but she had no time to think or even scream.

The pain in her throat rose as sparkles of electricity flared through her sensors, burning her voice box and silencing her. The gasp that had started vibrating fizzled into abrupt silence, and she slumped back against her assailer, shaking in pain.

What happened next was even worse. As she tried to wriggle out of the hold, she felt a hand press down against her lower back, a metallic wrench prying open the compartment with her battery.

A flash of disgust and horror filled her as Dawa struggled, hands shaking as they tried to pry the assailant away from her, fighting to stop him from doing–

It was too late.

Something burned through her circuits like fire, shutting down the control she had on her body. One by one her sensors flickered offline, and Dawa crumpled into the man’s arms, unconscious and unfeeling.

The man grunted at the sudden increase of dead weight, then shoved the body of the omnic over his shoulder as if it weighted nothing. He was holding a small hand-held Taser in his hand that was set on the lowest level. He had used it to short-circuit the omnic’s processors as instructed, just as he had done for the previous two omnics he’d tracked down during the past month.

Putting the Taser away in his jacket the tall man turned around to look at his accomplice standing near the door of the office whose attention had been on the television, as if uncaring about the fight happening right in front of him.

They were both wearing latex masks on their faces, which distorted their appearance and made them unrecognizable by face-recognition software, but in person it made them look like dolls, faces white and alien.

“We have to go before people come,” the man urged the other, thick Han accent eating at his words. “Whatcha looking at?”

The other man pointed a thumb at the television. The news reports had moved on to the next subject, a dam that had broken down somewhere in the south. When he spoke up, he did so with a lighter version of the same accent. “Didn’t you see the news just now?”

“I was a little busy with that thing here,” the first man sneered, brushing past his accomplice to leave the office, the omnic slumped over his shoulder. He looked left and right, to make sure there was nobody outside, but the corridor was still deserted. All their hard work had paid off.

“That pacifist monk from Nepal or something is going to be over at Xiaguan doing a speech,” the other man told him, following him at the same brisk pace.

Another snort. “We got something better waiting for us than some stupid pacifist monk spouting bullshit”.

“You never listen, do you? We got a call yesterday about people snooping into the Xiaguan Tech branch. They were askin’ around about our shit. It was that guy. Seems really suspicious he’d want to make a huge speech right afterwards,” he shrugged, as if to sound blasé about what he was saying, but there was a small frown on his face. “Bet you all your cash that the guys at the headquarters will want to do sumthing about it”.

“So what?”

“We might make a call, that’s what,” the man sneered, feeling his mask pull at the skin of his face. “There’s a couple left of these guys in Xiaguan that we might catch and maybe we can get a bigger fish while we’re there, too”.

“Ooh, I like the part where we hurt them,” the first man’s glee was obvious in his tone, and he rushed forwards to the entrance of the hall, uncaring if he was seen.

“You always like that part”.

Their car was waiting for them right outside of the entrance, and the first man dumped the unresponsive body of the omnic into the truck, shutting it close without care before moving to sit in the passenger’s seat.

“Phone the guys then,” he prompted as the other manoeuvred the car out of the parking lot, driving quickly away from the Base without anyone coming to stop them. “Wouldn’t want the job to go to someone else. Like Chi. I hate Chi”.

“Yes, yes, hang on”.

Without taking his eyes off the road, the first man pressed a button on the header of the car. There was a cracking noise as the computer inbuilt in the car started up.

“Call: headquarters,” he ordered.

Three seconds later the phone connected.

He drove out of the side road and into the highway, rapping his fingers on the wheel, and after what felt like forever, someone picked up.

“Wangdue and Tenzin here,” he spoke up, not bothering with waiting for identification as there was never any need for that on the protected line he’d called. “Reporting in, we got our last omnic. We’re taking it back to the headquarters with the other three”.

Leaning forwards from the passenger seat, Tenzin spoke up, not wanting to waste any more time. “Do we get to go to Xiaguan now?”

Wangdue rolled his eyes at that, but did not say anything. He felt the same sort of vicious pleasure as his colleague felt at the thought of dragging more of those blasting bots down, and he hoped he could get more action this time.

There was a sparkle of static from the speakers of the car. “Wangdue, Tenzin, you’re the first one reporting back today. Good job,” they could hear rustling of paper from the other side, muffled somewhat. “You can drop the omnics to the station on the way to Xiaguan and let the others deal with them, but you won’t be alone. There’s gonna be news reporters there, you can’t handle that by barging through as you did last time”.

“Oi, we learned from that,” Tenzin spoke up, slamming his fist against his thigh. “This one we took our time with! Nobody even noticed!”

“We’ll see about that. But still, if you’ve heard the news you know this will be a publicity stunt. If we want to make an impression we can’t let them see us yet. Does undercover mean anything to you? Just shut up and get to Xiaguan by tomorrow and debrief with Chi and the others”.

Tenzin’s lips curled into an unpleasant snarl, one hand rubbing at the uncomfortable latex of his mask, ripping it off his face. “Ugh. I hate Chi”.

“The feeling is mutual,” Wangdue muttered. “Ok, we’re going,” he said louder for the benefit of the person on the other end of the phone. “Maybe we can even get enough leverage to drag that metallic tin can down and send that pacifist shit where it belongs”.

“Rise of the humans,” Tenzin muttered with a sneer.

“Rise of the humans,” the person on the phone said, sounding final.

Wangdue passed by a car in the highway, barely glancing over, and grinned. “Rise of the humans,” he said.

The phone call clicked shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Vicaya (Pali):** Interest and inquiry into experience. One of the seven factors of enlightenment.
> 
> Again, you see my headcanons being brought into the fanfic. Some assorted ideas about omnic programming and defying it, and of course a few hints about Zenyatta's personal past, which will be uncovered as the various arcs move along!


	4. Chapter 04: Vyapada

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I ended up needing some extra time for a scene in the middle, which was hard and I had to rewrite it a few times to get it to come out right.
> 
> Also I got lost while drawing a Zenyatta dealing with Mondatta's death comic, and that took a couple weeks to make. [You can find it here](http://lacertae-dreamscape.tumblr.com/post/157211580282/continue-your-work-on-the-path-of-the-iris) (i'm rather proud of it, sorry for the shameless self promotion)
> 
> I hope I've managed to keep some people interested in this fanfic... there is some action in this chapter! Do drop a review if you like it!

**Chapter 04: Vyapada**

 

Sunday had brought rain.

It had rained the whole day and for most of the following night, and by the time Monday morning arrived, the streets were covered with mud and puddles, the air smelling distinctly of rain; around dawn the downpour had finally stopped, leaving behind enough spots in the sky for the sun to peek through.

The air was humid against Tekhartha’s face plate as he walked down a deserted street, fingers idly playing with the beads of his bracelet.

It was early, too early to be awake, but instead of spending the night recharging, Tekhartha had been plagued by nightmares. They had left him weary and fretful, unable to rest.

He did not remember dreaming _before_. Few omnics did, but once their brains passed the threshold of self-awareness, every image, sound and smell was recorded in strings of logs and data banks. Some were discarded, some left an impression behind so omnics could recognise similar or identical inputs (like knowing what vanilla smelled like, or the specific shade of a colour), and dreams worked for them in the same way they did for humans.

Bits and pieces of memories were compiled together and resulted in surprisingly peculiar dreams, while other times they seemed to come from no discernible source, blending together reality and fiction in weird ways.

Tekhartha had experienced a lot of this last kind –he had dreamed of snow even as he had never seen it nor knew how that felt like, and of seeing the sea, dipping the tip of his feet into its cool water. The sensory relay he’d received had felt almost real without any previous data to compare it to. There had been a figure at his side, on the shore, shorter than he was, their metal burning golden under the setting sun, and their presence had brought comfort to him as they observed the sea together. After waking up, he had felt a deep, unexplainable longing, but also peace at a time when there had been none for him.

Those dreams were the ones he recalled more vividly than the rest.

Unfortunately, not all dreams were that pleasant, and the one that had plagued his mind during the night had not been kind. Trapped within a nightmare he had been unable to control or stop, Tekhartha had to relieve a painful memory until its harshness had startled him awake, leaving behind an impression of pain in his circuits, and the fleeting memory of the acrid smell of burning oil.

After an hour spent shuffling around and pacing through Cheng’s room, watching Mondatta’s silent frame, Tekhartha had given up and left, hoping a walk would clear his muddled thoughts enough for him to feel better.

On Sunday, Mondatta had insisted on getting him clothes in order to continue their ruse in front of others. It was not much –a pair of pants and a small tunic, resembling the one Shambali monks wore– but it was more than Tekhartha could afford on his own. He had been opposed to the idea, but Mondatta had insisted, and not wanting to insult him with his own unkempt appearance, Tekhartha had relented. As he left the room, he hesitated in front of the neatly folded clothes before deciding to wear them.

The friction of fabric against the sensors of his body was unfamiliar in its novelty, and he knew how he looked –proper, probably, and not as inadequate as he felt. The shirt was white and open on the front with a modest cut, red embroidery curling around the edge of the neck and the sleeves, and the pants were a faded, dull red.

It was a simple attire, nothing flashy, and yet Tekhartha felt self-conscious, aware that after so long without any clothes, wearing some would be weird. He would need to do his best not to damage them until he had to give them back.

With the buzzing anticipation building within him as time ticked by, Tekhartha had hoped walking would help him settle down, but it did not; the desert streets did not offer any sort of enlightenment, and he felt just as anxious as before.

His footsteps echoing in the silence was his only company as he walked, and Tekhartha tried to focus on that rhythmic, constant noise to calm down and concentrate, culling extra processes so he could think faster.

He had _no_ idea what to do.

In just a few hours, Mondatta would make a speech in public, attracting enough omnics for Tekhartha to try and locate one belonging to his batch –or someone who would know one, at any rate. Mondatta seemed so secure, so confident, and yet Tekhartha had no real plan whatsoever on how to proceed. Finding his batch mates took priority but after that, he had no idea. He just hoped the guards that would be present at the speech would offer Mondatta some degree of protection, in case there were dangers.

Mondatta had refused the private bodyguards offered by the city council, under the pretext that it would attract unwanted attention to those who were housing him during his stay in Xiaguan, but had accepted the escort from Cheng’s apartment to the park the city council had offered for his speech.

Time was essential, and Tekhartha would have little of it to spare before he and Mondatta had to be escorted away afterwards.

Mondatta was not afraid of walking on his own if he was not recognised, but once people knew he was there, they would attempt to speak with him, and that would increase the chances of something bad happening. Tekhartha could only hope the security would be enough.

A sudden, loud sound coming from somewhere close by startled him out of his thoughts.

He stumbled forwards, processes halting as his sensors went crazy to find the source of the noise, buzzing and whirring.

For a few, long seconds, Tekhartha remained tense and immobile, listening, then…

Again, the same noise. Now that he had been waiting for it, Tekhartha was not taken by surprise, and could recognise it –something metallic was being hit, repeatedly.

Brain filled with static, Tekhartha pressed one hand against a nearby wall to steady himself.

A sudden, loud noise of unidentified origin… his first instinct was to head out and search for it, but his body refused to move, processes sluggish and slow.

Tekhartha found himself rooted to the spot, fingers digging into the wall. His fans whirring seemed suddenly louder in the silence.

It was not dark –the sun was peeking from behind the mountains, there were patches of blue sky, and his optical sensors were stabilizing to a growing light source. Somewhere in the empty streets, surely some people were already up and starting their days. Waste collectors, drivers… if not them, there were still animals. The noise could be anything.

There was no reason for him to be tense or wary. He could ignore the sound, return to Cheng’s apartment. To Mondatta.

He did not move.

Seconds ticked by, minutes passing slowly. The noise returned once again, and a third time. Tekhartha’s sensors idly relayed that it was weaker now.

Slowly, sluggishly, he culled a few processes. He shut down his optical sensors, isolating his brain from visual external input, and focused on the whirring of his core.

When the banging sound repeated again, sharp and loud, his optical sensors flickered back on again and he clenched his hands into fists, looking down at the bracelet Mondatta had given him, following the curve of each bead. For a second, he thought about Mondatta finding him in that alley, and about why he had been in that alley to begin with.

His footsteps were not as steady as they could have been, but there was a sense of satisfaction as Tekhartha forced his body to move towards the noise, his senses reaching out to it.

Ahead of him, the street opened up into a small plaza. The streetlights were growing dimmer, ready to flicker off, and cast weird shadows on the rows of benches as Tekhartha walked briskly past them. The noise repeated again, and he turned a corner left, his steps steadier as he hastened his pace, his feet making soft, steady sounds on the concrete.

Once again the noise rose sharply from the silence and then abruptly stopped, but this time it was close, and Tekhartha came to a halt as he turned yet another corner, finding himself in the middle of another dead-end street.

It was a large one with a medium truck parked next to the back entrance of what appeared to be a warehouse, its roll-up sheet door open wide; there was a forklift truck half loaded near the back opening of the truck’s cargo, but there was no one in sight.

Tekhartha hesitated, tension building through his circuits… and then the sound came again. This time, it was clear it was coming from inside the truck. Moving quickly, he hoisted himself on the truck and took a step inside, all his sensors active and running in the foreground.

There was a pair of legs peeking from underneath a pile of fallen crates.

That was who was making the noise. Tekhartha forgot all his reticence and approached the pile of boxes, optical sensors zooming to adapt to the lights inside the truck, and quickly assessed the situation. A pile of boxes had toppled over, probably badly secured, and were trapping a person underneath.

His hands shook as he tried to take a hold of one of the packages, his fingers slipping over the ridges of the crate, and for a moment Tekhartha wondered if he would be able to lift it safely. It took less finesse than grabbing a pencil, though, so he managed to lift the first box high enough to slip one arm underneath and secure a better grip, removing it and putting it down on the side. The boxes were all labelled with the National Post Office Logo, so they probably contained correspondence ready to be sorted.

As he methodically removed the boxes, pushing them to the side, the legs started to squirm so he cleared his voice box, “please do not move, it might endanger you further. I am almost done”.

With that he grabbed the last box, heavier than the rest, and with some difficulty he lifted it up, not wanting to hurt the human trapped underneath. “It would be best if you could speak up, did you hit your head when–”

A metal bar swung inches from his face and Tekhartha recoiled instantly, almost stumbling back. The box slipped from his fingers and toppled over to the side, thankfully not hitting the person he’d just freed.

For a moment, both he and the human remained frozen in place, Tekhartha looking down at the man who was pointing a metal bat at his face. He was breathing hard, wheezing, and was looking up at him with a mix of disorientation and distrust, eyes unfocused. Tekhartha had to wonder how long he had been squeezed under all those boxes.

“Please hold still,” he repeated, speaking slowly, but did not reach out, preferring to lift both hands in front of him in a pacifying gesture. “I heard your banging and came to investigate, I do not mean any harm”.

The harsh pants from the man were his only answer. Time stretched on, neither of them moving and the man still holding the bar against him, hand shaking.

Tekhartha waited patiently. He would not leave before making sure the man was fine, and he knew it might take time.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the man lowered his improvised weapon and slumped fully against the floor of the truck. “S… stuck,” he gasped out, his dialect thick and drawled out. Tekhartha noticed only then that the man’s other arm was still buried under more boxes, and felt a sparkle of worry.

Taking the man’s words as an invitation, he took a step towards him, moving over his prone body to push the boxes out of the way, freeing his arm.

With a soft, choked gasp the man clutched his arm against his chest, heaving as he frantically patted his swollen hand, eyes wide, fingers clenching down at the base of his elbow. He was panicking, and it was obvious.

“Allow me,” Tekhartha knelt at the man’s side, keeping his tone even and unthreatening. “I can help, if you let me”.

He had no idea if the man trusted him enough to let him get close, but he was in pain, confused and hurt, and Tekhartha wanted to help. When there was no obvious rebuke he reached out with one hand, fingers splayed out to appear unthreatening, slow enough that the man would be able to pull away if so he wanted. His fingers made contact with the man’s wrist and he flinched but did not tug his arm away. At first, Tekhartha sent small sparkles of static from the tip of his fingers and clumsily massaged the wrist, then the palm, forcing blood circulation through. It was slow and uncomfortable with so much space between them, but after a while, the swelling lessened and the skin returned to a more normal shade.

Tekhartha worked in silence, grateful that his fans and core were quiet and back to normal functionality. He was still tense, secondary sensors buzzing and alert, but he felt calmer, steadier.

He knew how to work with someone panicking.

The man’s harsh breathing also evened out, and he relaxed, slumping against the crates. He was still wheezing, but he looked calmer.

“Ugh… prickles,” the man grunted, sounding upset but relieved. If he could feel his hand that was good enough.

Worried about the man’s lungs and eventual damage to his chest area, Tekhartha tried to run a diagnostic, but other than fatigue and adrenaline, his sensors did not detect damage.

“How do you feel? Does it hurt to breathe?” he asked, tilting his head to the side in question. His voice seemed to make the man focus on him again, and he seemed to tense up again.

“I… no, no. It’s…” he coughed, and winced afterwards, pressing his other hand against his chest. “Just feels like I was squeezed under a ton of correspondence, that’s how it feels”.

Tekhartha’s soft chuckle seemed to take both of them by surprise. “Well, I suppose that is to be expected. Some say the written word has weight, and I guess you just experienced that for yourself”.

That startled a wheezing laugh from the man, shoulders shaking in a mix of disbelieving amusement and pain, but when the laughter morphed into a cough, Tekhartha reached out to press a hand against his thorax. There was no rib damage, but one could never be certain without a proper scan…

“I’m fine,” the man pressed his working hand on top of Tekhartha’s own, and held it tightly. The unexpected contact startled Tekhartha enough he almost pulled away. “Thank… thank you for coming to help. I thought I would die”.

“You were lucky you had enough space to bang against the side of the truck,” Tekhartha replied, nodding at his words. “Do you need help standing up? How is your hand doing?”

The man wriggled his fingers experimentally, wincing as he did so, then with the help of Tekhartha, he stood up. He was shorter than him by a good head, but despite the previous wary attitude he did not seem bothered by that as others had been before.

“Thank you again,” the man nodded at him, eyeing him up and down and narrowing his eyes. “You are stronger than you look. Taller too, this up close”.

Tekhartha hunched his shoulders a bit, fingers running to the bracelet around his wrist. “It is a common misconception,” he agreed. “Do you require assistance with unloading the truck? I do not think it would be wise to work, at least for a little longer”.

That seemed to startle the man, who looked around, appearing a bit lost, then he huffed out a tired laugh. “Feel free to knock yourself off with these, I would never turn down a hand with the heavy lifting”.

A few seconds ticked by. Tekhartha waited, noticing that the man was hesitating, deep in thought.

Then, “My name is Li Wei,” he finally offered, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders, apparently coming to a decision.

“Tekhartha,” he offered back, even if he had not been asked, and noticed the way the man stiffened a bit at that, but did not say anything.

Moving heavy boxes out of the way before loading the landing gear did not take as long as he had feared, and Tekhartha worked silently, comfortable with cutting the awkward air off by avoiding pointless small talk.

The heavy lifting felt good, and the strain helped him clear his mind.

Afterwards, with all the packages unloaded, Tekhartha stared at the empty truck around him and then down at his hands. The trembling was still there, probably made worse by the manual labour, and his sensors were alert and buzzing, but he felt calmer, and his fatigue from the sleepless night was gone.

He turned to Li Wei. “Are you well enough to be on your way now, or do you require me to drive you to the hospital?” he asked, though he had no idea where that would be in the city.

“I’m going to stick around for a while longer, actually,” Li Wei replied, looking awkward as he stood on the side of the empty truck. His voice sounded less fatigued too, but still raspy. “I’ll eat something and call a friend, so you don’t have to… stick around any longer. But–” he stumbled over his words, cleared his throat and continued, “thank you. For the help. And… y’know, saving my butt earlier”.

“It was my pleasure,” Tekhartha replied, a smile evident in his voice. “Do try not to let that happen again, though, as I might not be around to give you a hand then”.

With that, he turned around and left, mood considerably lighter than before.

He barely noticed that his optical sensors had adjusted to the increased light, but he did notice, as he walked back out on the main street, that there were now people mulling around. A check to his internal clock told him that he had spent more than an hour helping the man, and that he needed to get back to Cheng’s apartment –Mondatta was probably awake, and worried.

As he had thought, Mondatta was already up when he got back, and was in the middle of a conversation on Cheng’s holophone, the image of an unknown omnic projected in the middle of the room, the edges flickering slightly.

Tekhartha froze, one hand on the door handle, as he recognised the omnic’s attire as belonging to the Shambali order.

“… so imagine how surprised I was to find you on the news, about to deliver a speech in Xiaguan, when you left the monastery claiming you would refrain from such things during this trip,” the omnic was saying in Nepalese. Tekhartha cringed, chastised. “Master Mondatta, you could at least _call_ us every now and then, it is not like we lack the means to keep in contact, if only you could bring a phone on yourself when you travel”.

Mondatta laughed softly, waving one hand in front of him. “That is true, but then you would expect me to call you too often, and I feel like the monastery needs to learn how to cope with my absence, if I’m required to be elsewhere”.

The omnic’s hum reeked displeasure. “We both know you merely dislike the thought of carrying a phone on you, but when we find these things out through National holovision maybe it’s time to reconsider your stance,” another sigh, the four-point array on the omnic’s forehead flickering mauve, then, “about that, we were also surprised to see you in the company of an uninitiated trainee. Where did you find him, Mondatta?”

Tekhartha’s fans attempted to whirr into action, but he culled the process as quickly as he could, not wanting to alert Mondatta and his interlocutor of his presence yet. His core stuttered, heating up at the thought of the Shambali monk being fooled about his presence, and waited for Mondatta to explain himself to his fellow monk.

“Oh, I rescued him while I was passing by Lijiang,” Mondatta said instead, his voice smooth but obviously amused. “I feel our paths were meant to cross, Aadi, and I am convinced for as long as they will converge, we will both have much to learn from one another”.

Aadi’s expression could not change, but the way he snapped his head back betrayed his surprise at Mondatta’s words, and Tekhartha himself felt the same shock, touched beyond thought.

He was not sure whether Mondatta meant what he said to Aadi, or if it was just another facet of the lie he had built up for Tekhartha’s pretense, but… Mondatta had said that he would not lie for the sake of it, and that meant…

Tekhartha felt his core heat up, warmth trickling inside him.

After all, Mondatta had implied it once, hadn’t he? That he could see Tekhartha walking on the path of the Iris.

Maybe there _was_ a place for him, after all.

Steadying himself, Tekhartha knocked on the door and entered the room, watching as Mondatta turned to look at him. “I am back, Master Mondatta,” he said.

“Welcome back, my dear,” Mondatta stood up, then looked back at his interlocutor. “Aadi, allow me to introduce you to Tekhartha. Tekhartha, this is Aadi, one of my fellow monks at the Shambali monastery”.

Tekhartha bowed his head, hand fidgeting with the bracelet around his wrist to hide the mix of embarrassment and anticipation he still felt whenever he heard someone use his chosen name. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” he said, keeping his voice even.

When he looked up, he was startled to hear a booming laughter coming from Aadi. “Oh, forgive me, I did not intend to laugh at you,” Aadi managed to appear both chastised and amused at once as he stifled his laugh down into a chuckle. “But if you are even half as headstrong as Master Mondatta, I think that name will suit you just fine”.

Mondatta’s fans whirred louder for a second. “To hear such words from someone who refused to leave the monastery for a month just because–”

Whatever Mondatta had been about to say was interrupted by the sound of a door being slammed open, and an omnic voice coming from somewhere behind Aadi echoed in the room, surprising all the omnics.

“Aadi! Aadi! The news! Open the news broadcast now!”

Whoever had interrupted their call apparently had no idea that Aadi had been talking with Mondatta, and Tekhartha only caught a glimpse of the omnic –square head, three lines where eyes normally were, a flicker of rose-coloured array LED lights– before it was gone out of sight.

“Padma, what is the meaning of this–” Aadi was also interrupted as the news broadcast on the other side of the call drowned his voice out.

“-rom Australia. Less than half an hour ago there was a set of explosions of unknown cause in the Australian Outback, located in the area surrounding the local Omnium–”

Tekhartha and Mondatta, startled at the news report, shared a worried look.

“Mondatta, could it be–” Tekhartha hesitated, not willing to voice his fears.

Over the course of the past months, Australia had been often on the news due to the Government’s decision to concede the area of the Omnium to the omnic community. The show of faith had caused an international uproar, with some nations openly condemning the decision while others applauded the step towards equality Australia was willing to take. Unfortunately this had caused a relocation of many human communities that had been forced to abandon territories they had previously occupied, and their malcontent and resentment had ended in the birth of a movement called Australian Liberation Front.

The group was vehemently anti-omnic, and had been featured in the international news due to their constant attacks and protests against the omnic community, undeterred by the Government attempts at peacekeeping.

The ALF had never attempted to escalate the situation further than that, but Tekhartha had been afraid for weeks now that it would only be a matter of time, as the group refused to back down and find common grounds with the omnics. Using explosives, though…

As Cheng was not at the apartment, having left earlier on to go to the restaurant, Tekhartha took the liberty to reach for the holovision set remote, connecting to the cable and flipping through the channels until he recognised the familiar logo of the International Broadcast news.

The IBN studio was washed in white and browns, the logo on the lower left the only splash of colour, but Tekhartha’s attention was drawn to the announcer’s face, pale and stern. Behind him was a stock photo of the Australian Omnium taken by a drone.

“Aadi, it might be best to close the call and resume at a later–” Mondatta attempted to speak, but the voice of the announcer, now coming from two places at once, drowned out the rest of his phrase.

“Earlier this morning, there was an attack led against the Tennant Creek Omnium base,” the announcer was stating, expression grim. “The attackers set off a chain explosion that destroyed the outer layer of the main Omnium factory building, and an unknown number of people entered the building, cutting off all external communications with the Omnium base. That was less than twenty minutes ago, and it is unknown what their motives are. Several special forces teams were dispatched and are heading to the factory, and our reporters are on the way as well. Let’s go LIVE to our correspondent Jon Hathaway”.

The camera flickered, changing from the sterile news station studio to a portable camera. The correspondent was a man sitting in what appeared to be an helicopter seat, with a pair of earphones and microphone set.

“Jon Hathaway, reporting LIVE,” the man leaned forwards. His voice was coming out clear despite all the noise the helicopter made, due to the good quality of their equipment. “We are flying towards Tennant Creek now. We spotted a few abandoned camions and jeeps on the ground, and we are about a couple miles away from the Omnium factory. The view is pretty clear, and we might be able to re-establish contact with the base at this distance, and understand the reasons behind this act–”

Tekhartha was only vaguely aware of Mondatta moving around the table to step at his side, as they were both focused on the holovision screen. Behind the reporter, they could see glimpses of the sky and the outline of the horizon, brown and hazy in the morning light, and Tekhartha’s optical sensors caught sight of the metallic edge of the Omnic building, still far into the distance but growing closer before the helicopter tilted to the side, hiding it from view.

The camera shifted focus to zoom on the outside of the helicopter. There were a few drones in the distance, and some other helicopters heading in the direction of the factory, probably more news troupes and the special teams the reporters had mentioned earlier. Down below, racing on straight, bumpy roads, were a few vehicles headed the same way.

Tekhartha felt strangely on edge, optical sensors counting the jeeps and cars and then the helicopters.

“This is troubling,” Mondatta murmured, almost to himself. “Aadi, we should close the call and talk at a later date. I have a speech to get ready for”.

There was a shuffle from the other side, then the echo of the news channel disappeared. “Yes, Mondatta. I hope you know what you are doing. Call me when you are done, please”.

The call ended abruptly, but neither Mondatta nor Tekhartha were paying much attention, focus still on the news report.

The helicopter was moving quickly, and the factory soon became more than a distant dot, the curve of the metal familiar to Tekhartha, as it was identical to his own Omnium, if only bigger and more spread out.

The difference was in the amount of buildings surrounding the factory –most seemed to be of recent made, and were probably the new houses of the omnic community living there, some still not fully built yet.

“There it is,” Jon Hathaway’s voice was a bit distorted but still clear. “The Omnium is in sight now, and we can see… there are visible signs of destruction in the immediate surroundings of the main factory, and there… I think I can see someone moving! It’s…” the camera shuffled and zoomed in towards the Omnium, but there was no one there. They were still far too distant to be able to see much. “They’re gone now, but there was someone there”.

There was off-screen muttering, probably between the correspondent and one of the other men of the crew. Tekhartha checked the time, wondering whether they would get to watch the situation unfold until it was time for Mondatta’s speech or if they would cut contact until the helicopter had gotten closer.

“We received a message from one of the troops sent to contact the attackers. They were able to establish contact with the Omnium base again, we might receive the transmission as well since we are this close, though we’ve been told to move out of the way in case it becomes too dangerous… here it–”

There was another flicker, and a small window was cut into the screen of the holovision, dividing the scene in two. The transmission from the Omnium was disturbed and not as clear as the one from the troupe’s camera, but Tekhartha and Mondatta were able to recognise the inside of the Omnium factory through a shaky hand-held camera zoom. The room was the very centre of it, with the massive bulk of the Omnium’s Core visible in the middle.

Tekhartha realised instantly that something was wrong when instead of the protective cover surrounding the core, he could see directly into its circuits, a sickly purple glow seeping through the cracks where the metal plates should have been.

There were figures sitting on the side, and when the camera’s focus settled, Tekhartha could see they were all humans, wearing similar attires and no mask to cover their faces. No omnic in sight, though there were supposed to be many around.

“Mond–” Tekhartha felt his unease grow with each second, and he turned to look at Mondatta, who was leaning forwards, optical sensors locked on the transmitted video.

At once, the men looked up and towards the camera, as if aware they were being watched. There was no sound, so the scene was eerie quiet, clashing with the loud background noises of the helicopter, and Tekhartha felt his unease turn into dread in the pit of his core, fans whirring loudly.

The men in the Omnium stood up, looking at the camera as they all raised one fist into the air, elbows bent to the side –it could have passed for a cheer, if their faces were not serious, lips pulled into thin, tense lines.

“Mondatta, I think something is–”

The men turned their backs to the camera to look at the Omnium, except one, who walked closer instead. He was holding something in his hand –something small, like a remote, black and polished, with a single, visible button on top.

He ambled to the camera until he was close enough that only his face could be seen –tired, weary and yet dead set, his jaw clenched and his eyes open wide in what looked a bit like triumph, a bit like insanity, and mouthed something.

There was no sound, but Tekhartha could read his lips either way.

_‘Death to the Omnic Menace’._

He moved away from the camera, and in the few seconds it took him to stand on the side Tekhartha had moved closer to the holovision set, the dread spreading through his circuits like fire. “N–”

Everything happened quickly, after that.

The men started screaming. No sound reached through to the million viewers across the world, but the sentiment was clear, a stark contrast with the loud, confused voices of the helicopter crew. Fists raised into the air, the men continued to scream, and then–

–the man pressed the remote button, cackling and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

One second, then another, and–

A flash of light from the Omnium core.

The men’s crazed expressions seemed to encompass everything, Tekhartha unable to look away…

The core exploded.

Tekhartha had a perfect view of the Omnium core detonating, one millisecond before the camera was blinded by a sudden, bright light that ate away everything on its path.

The men disappeared within the light, and Tekhartha’s optical sensors dimmed instantly to prevent him from going blind. The last he saw before the camera itself was reached by the explosion was shrapnel and metallic shards flying everywhere, and that man’s crazed expression as he laughed, and laughed, and–

The transmission went offline, the view turning into static noise.

The crew on the helicopter was screaming louder now, and Tekhartha dully turned his attention to them, attempting to make sense of what he’d just seen… only to see it repeated there as well, this time with sound. The explosion boomed in the background, perfectly visible from the camera pointed that way, and the Omnium exploded LIVE for the world to see.

The shockwave blasting through the air arrived only seconds later, expanding from the factory outwards. The closest buildings were hit first, obliterated from sight as if they were made of butter, debris and metal crumbling into dust and flying everywhere.

Nothing could withstand a nuclear explosion.

The crew continued to scream, panic and fright growing as they finally realised what had happened, but it was too late. There had never been any hope.

The helicopter was too close –and so were the cars and jeeps down below on the ground, and the other helicopters.

The shockwave arrived first, even before the mushroom cloud had time to form –even before the heatwave. It hit the helicopter face-first, and the last view from the troupe’s camera, before it flickered and died, was of sky and ground spinning wildly until they were a blur as the helicopter rolled in the air without control as it fell to the ground.

The screams grew louder for a few frantic, terribly long seconds before they were abruptly cut off. The transmission died, and the holovision screen blanked out.

It felt like the white noise lasted forever, but in truth it was no longer than a few seconds at best before the transmission switched back to the studio, the distraught face of the announcer, pale and shocked, filled the screen.

“I’m… sorry for the–” the façade faltered for a second, horror and fright clear in his face, before the man visibly collected himself. There was no point in lying or minimizing the situation. The report had been LIVE. “The connection with our correspondent is gone, and we have no way of re-establishing contact. It is as of yet unknown what the status of the Omnium is at this point, but…” he trailed off and looked to the side, probably seeking aid from someone off screen.

They were at a loss –the Omnium was powered by a nuclear core, refined and concentrated and completely automated. The amount of energy it contained was that of several megatons of TNT, so the fallout caused by a nuclear explosion of that calibre was almost incalculable.

The immediate area surrounding the Omnium would have been obliterated from existence, leaving behind nothing but dust and rubble for miles. No building, or tree, or construction, could be left there, not to mention any sort of life, human or otherwise. The amount of radiation expanding from there was also…

It was too much. Far too much.

The ramifications of such a powerful, devastating nuclear explosion… Tekhartha could barely comprehend them. his neural pathways attempted to calculate the impact of such a fallout and what it would mean, but his processes faltered and were culled before they could make his circuitry glitch.

All the omnics that were living in the area surrounding the Omnium, the humans who had decided to stay behind and help, the news troupes, the special corps sent to deal with the earlier assault, all the humans present in the Omnium core room, and every single animal in the area miles away from the Omnium…

They were all dead.

In the blink of an eye, their lives had been ended, just like that.

Tekhartha took a step away from the holovision, the buzz of his fans droning out the announcer’s voice, then he was startled by the sound of metal cracking coming from the side. He spun around to look at Mondatta, who was slumped down against the table, hands pressed against its surface in an attempt to keep himself standing.

“Mast–” Tekhartha’s voice box fizzled and he fell silent, the shock so complete he had no words left.

It was too much.

Instead of speaking, he moved to Mondatta’s side, clutching his arm in silent support.

After a few seconds, Mondatta’s voice rose in a soft, pained murmur –a long, sorrowful chant, a prayer for all the souls lost in the explosion.

In the small, constricting room, Tekhartha shut off his optical sensors and mourned in silence.

***

The sound of knocking alerted Tekhartha that someone was at the door, so he hurried to go open it.

For a moment he had forgotten about Mondatta’s speech, but finding two men standing outside of Cheng’s apartment, dressed in police garments, was a sudden reminder.

“Tekhartha Mondatta?” one of the two asked, looking professional but a little out of place.

Tekhartha straightened his back.

He shared the man’s uncertainty, but what had been set into motion could not be stopped now. He had to act his part and make Mondatta proud.

“Please come in,” he said, shifting to the side. “Master Mondatta is offering a prayer to the dead, but he will receive you in a moment”.

The uncertain expression melted into understanding, and the two guards shared a look. “We… uh, we’re sorry, for your loss,” one of them offered. “Did you know any of the…?”

The other guard elbowed him in the side, and he fell silent. Tekhartha fought to keep the deadpan out of his tone as he answered, “all the lives that were lost matter, and we mourn for their loss as one”.

With a chastised look, the guards kept quiet and followed him inside.

He left the guards near the door and walked across the room to Mondatta’s side. He did not know the proper etiquette –he was not really part of the Shambali, and he felt this almost as a loss, a craving he felt so much _more_ now– or if he was allowed to interrupt a litany for the dead, but there was no time to hesitate.

Even like this, Mondatta offered a sight to behold. Back held straight, array glowing softly, the murmur of his prayer was almost indistinguishable, softer than a whisper but continuous, lamenting the death and offering condolences for the lost souls. Kneeling at his side he placed one hand on his knee to attract his attention. Mondatta tilted his head towards him, array flickering back to normal intensity, and his murmurs ceased.

“Master Mondatta, the escort has arrived,” he said. “Are you ready to leave?”

Mondatta stared at him for a few seconds, then nodded. “Yes,” he answered, standing up and composing himself. “Please precede me, Tekhartha”.

Pushing his shoulders back in an attempt to look a little more dignified, Tekhartha did as he was told.

“It is a pleasure to meet the leader of the Shambali,” one of the guards muttered, looking down at the floor before taking a peek. Tekhartha watched with a little amusement, having been in the man’s position not long before.

The guards shifted into position, one in front of Tekhartha and one behind Mondatta, and led the two outside to their car, and Tekhartha only allowed himself to relax when he was sitting next to Mondatta and the guards drove off to the park.

‘Does this… change anything?’ Tekhartha asked quietly in binary, not wanting to risk asking the question out loud.

‘No, it does not,’ Mondatta replied. He was not looking at him, and instead his gaze focused to the view outside. ‘My speech might take longer, though. I hope you will excuse me’.

Tekhartha’s fans whirred. ‘Master Mondatta, I–’

Mondatta looked just as strong and steady as ever as he gently pressed one hand over Tekhartha’s trembling ones, steadying his nervous fidgeting, and did not look his way.

As the car drove through the traffic, the radio kept off to respect the silence, they both mourned and let their thoughts wander to what was waiting for them.

The trip took far less than Tekhartha had expected, leaving him little time to prepare.

The guards led Mondatta to a hastily prepared podium of sorts. It was nothing fancy, but it was placed in the middle of an empty area of the park, visible but easily protected. Tekhartha craned his neck to look past the rows of bushes and delicate ornamental statues and trees to see how many were already there; there were no more than a hundred people at most, with maybe a third of them human… a good crowd but less than he had expected to see.

It came as a surprise to see some really old omnic models puttering around, lesser human-like in appearance, sturdier and smaller than the others.

Mondatta’s speech would be recorded and aired live, so people could watch it at home, but being present was a statement, and Tekhartha wondered if most people had decided not to come because of the terrible news from earlier in the morning or because they were working, or even because they did not want to be seen publicly taking a side.

In such an unsteady time, the guidance of someone like Mondatta was something that was needed.

“This way, please, Master Mondatta,” the guard preceding Tekhartha did not turn around, but made a sweeping motion towards the podium.

Tekhartha stepped to the side, bowing at Mondatta. “I will be in the audience,” he said, motioning for the people waiting at the park. Some had taken notice of the car’s arrival, and were looking their way.

“We will reconvene here after my speech, my dear,” Mondatta tilted his head in a nod, then leaned forwards to take hold of Tekhartha’s hand in his own. The gesture helped Tekhartha steel himself a little. “Please do take care”.

With a nod, Tekhartha watched Mondatta leave flanked by both guards. There were humans waiting for him near the podium, dressed in formal clothes, and he stopped to talk with them.

Left alone, Tekhartha allowed his shoulders to slump a little. He had some time to scout the crowd and check whose omnics had models similar or identical to his own, and he was grateful that the crowd had not attempted to move towards the podium yet.

As he glanced around, he located more guards stationed around the park, visible and imposing, and their presence helped him feel a little better.

Most of the omnics present in the park appeared sad, not so much on their motionless faces but in the way they acted, shoulders hunched and attempting to look smaller than their full height. The sight sent a pang of pain through Tekhartha’s chest, and now more than ever he realised how important it was to take a stand and offer them a comforting hand. If he could do so as himself, as Tekhartha, and also as a fake Shambali monk, then… he would do his best.

He headed towards a small group of mixed omnics and humans first, hoping his garbs would help identifying him as part of Mondatta’s order, and was grateful to see a flicker of recognition in one of the humans’ faces as she poked her companion in the arm.

“Please be at ease,” he said as a greeting, using Mandarin to make sure they would understand him, one hand lifting to salute the group. “Master Mondatta will begin shortly”.

“You came with him…?” the omnic at his right was tall, nodes painted red, yet her voice was a low, deep timber, soothing to the ear. “I was so happy yesterday to hear he would give a speech today, and yet…”

Tekhartha nodded, core thrumming to echo the pain in her tone. “We heard the news as well, and Master Mondatta will address that today, do not fear. With such news haunting our thoughts, he is aware all he can offer are words of comfort, but we are all united in the face of this tragedy”.

The two human women standing there nodded, tension lines smoothing a little on their faces. There was little Tekhartha could say –he felt unqualified to speak about the Australian tragedy, about Mondatta most of all, the pain raw and too big to address, but he felt a similar distress resonate far too clearly from the omnics surrounding him, and he could see it reflected in the humans’ faces too.

All across the globe, people would listen to selected individuals talk about it, reassure the crowds and soothe the panic, and Mondatta was one of them, an influential figure who stood mostly alone against so much hate.

To place such a burden on Mondatta’s shoulders –expecting him to be able to address the tragedy, looking up to him… Tekhartha knew he could not let that weight stay on him alone. Mondatta was a symbol of faith and hope against hate, but he was a single omnic nonetheless.

“There is nothing that can be said that will make it any better, I am afraid,” he found himself saying, words slow and heavy in his voice box. “It is horrifying, but it is now, more than ever, that we need to remain strong. The fact that you are _here_ might seem a small action to make, but it means more than you think,” Tekhartha turned his head to look at the two women, his forehead array flickering in a smile. “As every tiny step counts, and we need all the little victories we can achieve”.

One of the women nodded, expression steeling into something determined, the other smiled at him, understanding what he meant.

“Thank you,” she said, and the other omnics, who had kept silent until then, nodded in agreement, their fans whirring loudly.

“No, thank you for being here,” he replied instead, and rather than just offer empty words to them, he reached out with one hand, pressing his fingers against the tall omnic’s shoulder. “I know Mondatta feels the same”.

He left the group behind, moving quickly and exchanging small, easy pleasantries with some of the other omnics and humans in the crowd, grateful to see how some seemed less hesitant as he walked away, probably reassured by his thanks that their presence was welcome.

Most of the omnics he saw were either models older than he was, or new, polished ones that belonged to different omnic batches, and after fifteen or so minutes spent walking through the park, observing as the guards slowly started converging to the podium, preparing for Mondatta’s speech, he felt like he was only wasting time.

Tekhartha edged further away from the podium, sneaking back glances every now and then to make sure he still had enough time. There were more humans keeping to the side-lines, uncertain and visibly hesitant about moving closer, and Tekhartha hesitated there, rubbing his fingers around the edges of his bracelet.

He knew Mondatta had prepared the speech to offer him the chance to see local omnics and find those from his batch, but the sight of people standing so far from the podium, clearly there to listen but unwilling to inch closer, made something within his core vibrate.

With a glance down at the bracelet and the clothes he was wearing, Tekhartha made a choice and then moved towards the humans.

They were startled at his approach, and some of them instinctively backed away, startled by his height; Tekhartha often forgot how tall his model appeared compared to most humans, so he instinctively slouched a bit, attempting to look less imposing and more like the monk persona he was trying to convey.

“Move closer if you like,” he called out, tone soft and pointedly serene. “We do not bite –nor do we have the necessary implements, even if we wanted to”.

The joke startled a small, surprised laugh from some of the humans, and Tekhartha chuckled.

“Not quite the kind of thing one would expect a monk to say,” a buff man muttered, but he sounded amused, if anything.

“Mirth is but a way to connect with others,” Tekhartha replied, shrugging. “And you appeared to be tense. If you feel uncomfortable in the presence of so many omnics, no one is asking you to get too close, but if you are interested and want to listen to Master Mondatta’s words, maybe stepping closer to the podium would help. I am unaware if the acoustic capabilities of this park are suited to let his voice travel this far back”.

The group of people were young, except for the buff man, who looked middle aged, and they shared a look between them, still hesitant but unsure how to proceed.

“I see there are still doubts within you,” Tekhartha spoke again. He had learned to know how to read body language early on, and it never failed him. “That is fine. Even if you stay here and do not come close, you already showed you want to listen and are open to dialogue. Master Mondatta always says that to be able to build a bridge, the first step is to _want_ to build the bridge, even before one knows where it could be built. I am aware how difficult things are, and that you are unsure, but you still decided to be brave and come here, so thank you. It would be selfish to demand you anything more than that, and I know Master Mondatta would not want you to feel uneasy”.

His words seemed to have an effect on them, because two of the humans relaxed minutely, and even the buff man seemed less tense. Tekhartha bowed to them, his hands clasped together in front of him to hide their tremors, and then moved away, seeking other omnics to talk with.

There were two omnics approaching the park from the main street at a slow pace. Expecting to find more hesitance he might need to soothe, Tekhartha headed towards them, and did not see how after a small hesitation, the humans he had left behind inched closer to the podium –not close enough to be part of the crowd gathering around it, but enough to listen.

Since he was looking at them, Tekhartha noticed how there was a small group of humans right behind the two omnics, and he hesitated, slowing down, though instead of diverting his attention elsewhere, he found himself focused on them for some reason.

They were all dressed casually, and two of them were tall and rather buff, and they moved with purpose until they reached the two omnics and then surrounded them, startling them. Tekhartha froze, alarmed at the sight.

What were they doing? It did not look like the omnics knew who the humans were, and their stance was not a pacific one.

Were they about to assault the omnics?

Tekhartha moved without thinking, dashing towards the omnics as quickly as he could. He would not let anyone be hurt, not if he could prevent it.

He was still too far, though, so he had to watch the men casually push the omnics away from the park and back towards the streets nearby. The four men acted casual but forceful, and the omnics were obviously afraid.

The city’s guards were all focused on Mondatta and the podium, so no one had noticed what was happening… except for Tekhartha.

His first instinct was to get loud. Attract attention on what was happening, make sure they could not get away with it –and then, one of the men looked his way, though his attention was still on his targeted omnics, and Tekhartha realised what it was that had irked him. The man’s face… something was covering it, like a thin layer of something. It made the face appear polished, fake, unlike the way human faces were. Harder to read.

Like a mask.

The four men pushed the omnics away and disappeared behind a corner, and Tekhartha hastily followed, hands clenched into fists.

He remembered his own assault, taken by surprise, attacked from behind and rendered helpless before the merciless beating even began, and a sparkle of anger filled him.

This would be different. He knew what he was getting into.

Tekhartha ran past the corner, and stopped abruptly, assessing what was going on.

He had expected to see the men pushing the omnics around, insulting them, or the first flicker of violence, but what he saw was that one of the omnics was crumpled in the arms of one of the men, while the other cowered away, forehead array flaring up in fright and anger.

“Let her go!” the omnic cried out, curled on herself, shoulders shaking. “She did nothing to you!”

“Dun’ care,” one of the men replied, lips stretched into a sneer. “You next, tin can, just give up ‘n get ready”.

This close, the uncanny appearance of his face was amplified, and Tekhartha’s diagnostic sensors signalled him they were all wearing the same sort of thin-film mask of latex.

“Please step away from them and kindly let her go,” Tekhartha spoke up, startling the men.

They all turned around, shocked at the appearance of yet another omnic.

“I knew we should have nabbed them earlier instead of following them to the park,” one of the shorter men hissed out. “We were meant to do this quietly!”

“Then we deal with this one too and make it _quiet_ ”.

The other buff man took a step towards him, brandishing a stunner and pointing it at him. Tensing up at the weapon, far too aware of what sort of damage that could do to him, Tekhartha remained still, thoughts coming to a halt as he culled as many background processes as he could.

“It does not have to resolve in violence,” he spoke again, a last attempt to reason with them, though he knew –by the slumped form of one omnic and the scared stance of the other– that there was no other kind of discussion possible.

“Feh, listen to that one… isn’t that shit like the guy talking in the park? Pacific bots?” the man in the back sneered, cracking his knuckles and walking closer to the one holding the stunner. “Always wanted to hit a pacifist”.

“I can take him, Chi,” the buff man spoke up, a growl in his tone. “Why don’t you get that other omnic? We need to get them both”.

Tekhartha’s head snapped to him, recording the man’s name for identification purposes later. ‘Get them both’, he’d said. This was not just a mindless assault against omnics.

‘What is your model number?’ he sent to the omnic pressed against the wall of the house, urgency lost within the empty binary code.

His question startled the omnic, who nonetheless replied in the same way, and Tekhartha felt his insides freeze.

It matched his batch list.

_‘Well,’_ he thought to himself, thought processes fuzzy due to shock, _‘that’s unexpected’_.

In the back of his brain, the programming he’d always ignored, always running in background, always _present_ no matter how much he disliked it, flared up, filling his circuits, and then–

He moved swiftly, not an ounce of hesitation.

He attacked, one hand open flat and tilted to the side, and he slammed it down against the man’s arm, where wrist and hand were connected. He lunged with his other hand, taking hold of the man’s forearm and tugging him closer, making him stumble.

It was a fluid, effortless movement, and he completed it by shifting his balance and sliding one foot forwards and arching his back, and the man tripped against him, their bodies pressed together in a parody of intimacy. With the man’s weight against him, it was easy to remove the stunner from his slackened grip, and Tekhartha neutralized the danger by dropping it and crushing it with his foot.

“Grab him–!”

Tekhartha abruptly straightened, pushing the man away from him, then dug his knee into the man’s abdomen, soft and unprotected, and when the man choked he tugged his forearm behind his back until he heard the sound of a bone snapping.

He let the man fall on the ground and stepped on his back before moving away. The man curled up on himself, unmoving on the ground, but despite a broken bone he did not utter a sound.

Chi rushed forwards, coming towards him with a fist raised to strike.

He seemed to be a little more versed with hand-to-hand combat than his companion had been, because he knew how to pack a punch… but Tekhartha knew how to take one. He brought his shoulder to the front, absorbing the hit where his plate was sturdier, and the echo of fist against metal was startling in the silence of the backstreet.

‘Go,’ he sent a quick message in binary, fighting to focus on something that was not the battle. ‘Alert the guards. Men out to get you. Go!’

Chi hissed in pain, teeth gritted, then dug his other hand in his jacket and extracted a small gun with a silencer. Tekhartha’s optical sensors zoomed on the weapon for a split second, brain calculating the percentage of damage possible at close distance before focusing on the man’s vulnerable spots instead.

He pushed himself forwards, invading Chi’s personal space, and slammed their foreheads together, reaching out to grab the gun by the barrel, tilting it down just in time as the man’s finger twitched on the trigger, shooting at him. The projectile missed him by an inch, hitting the ground instead.

Tekhartha was busy focusing on the fight to notice the omnic running away, leaving him alone in the backstreet with the four men until one of them screamed “Follow her! Go!” before moving to join Chi in fighting Tekhartha. “We’ll take this fucking omnic down and put it out of commission!”

Tekhartha snorted and twisted the gun to the side, rotating his arm and forcing Chi’s hand to follow the movement, index trapped in the trigger guard of the gun. After a small resistance, Tekhartha heard the bone of his finger snap.

“Fucking–” a litany of curses and insults melted from Mandarin into a thick, heavy dialect that Tekhartha did not recognise, pain evident as Chi cradled his hand against his chest, letting go of the gun.

Tekhartha allowed a background processor to ponder what to do with it. His fingers were shaking and he did not trust his grip, nor his aim; he did not want to use it either way, disgusted by that sort of weapon, but he could not drop it or let the men have it back.

He hummed and twisted the barrel into his hand, clumsy and messy but it did the job, breaking the gun so it would be unusable.

“T-that was my favourite gun!” the absurd statement coming from Chi might have been enough to startle a shocked chuckle out of Tekhartha, but he was running on his primary programming, and all thoughts were muddled, uncertain and focused on fighting.

The array on his forehead dimmed considerably.

His sensors broadened their reach, assessing the situation. Three opponents –one fallen on the ground, slowly standing up, clutching at his broken arm, grimacing, one biting down on his lower lip and holding his broken finger in a fist, breathing heavy, one wary, standing there and staring at him, unhurt but careful.

The last one was the most dangerous.

Tekhartha’s hands were still shaking, and it was growing worse, his programming clashing against the processors that connected his brain with the connectors of his new arms.

One second, then another, then–

Chi rushed towards him again. Surprising, considering his finger, but it was obvious he was seeking retribution, though the pain was making him reckless.

Tekhartha received him with a swift kick to his hip, sending him tumbling away from him.

“Stop right there”.

Tekhartha had not noticed the third man moving, focused on Chi’s attack, but now the man was towering over the fallen omnic, one hand ripping open the panel on the back, exposing the delicate wires beneath.

“I have no problem ripping through some of these to see what happens to it,” the man continued, his face white and polished, no expression whatsoever. “Just like you hurt my mates there, might end up doing the same to this”.

“You’d do that anyway,” he answered. An echo of a thought flared up in the back of his mind, worried at how deadpan his voice sounded, but the programming was predominant now, and any other thought had taken a backseat.

“Hmmm, fair point, but aren’t you supposed to avoid fighting?” the man sneered. “Chi, how’s Tenzin doing?”

Chi stood up again, shakily. “Livin’,” he grunted. “We can hurt this one, can we, Wangdue?”

A pause. Wangdue and Tekhartha observed one another in silence. “How d’you plan on doing that, Chi?”

A longer pause. Tekhartha did not move, still wary about allowing Wangdue any leeway with how close he was to the fallen omnic.

“Take Tenzin with you and see if Hui has caught that other omnic,” Wangdue finally decided, flexing his fingers and digging them into the omnic’s wires. Tekhartha tensed. “I will definitely explore with these if you stop my pals from leaving. Me ‘n you are going to have a good… chat”.

Tekhartha’s core was burning up, and his fans kicked in, whirring loudly as he watched Chi drag Tenzin up by his shoulders, but did not move, processes reassigning themselves different priorities as he forcibly pushed his programming down, back under and buried.

He watched the two men leave, stumbling and leaning against one another, and felt a flicker of anger –that he had not stopped them, that he did not know whether the other omnic was safe, that he’d allowed his programming to resurface so quickly, so easily…– but he abruptly suppressed it, letting it simmer down. He could afford himself no lapse in attention, not when the last man, Wangdue, was holding hostage the omnic and could seriously harm her.

There was still one of them here, after all, and if he was able to catch this one, he would find out where the others were going, and why they were kidnapping his batchmates.

He just had to wait a little longer.

Tekhartha hoped help was on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can see a little bit more of background for Zenyatta's past, and something to do with his programming. Also! Some action! And the Australian outback situation included in the timeline! yay! (sort of)
> 
> **Vyapada (Pali):** Aversion, anger, hatred. One of the five hindrances to meditation practice.


	5. Chapter 05: Patipatha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the lateness, but I was working on some art, and this chapter was rather complex to write, in the end.
> 
> I would like to make an announcement too!
> 
> I decided for the sake of keeping things simple, to divide this project in arcs and split each arc into its own fanfic, keeping them all under the same Series, which I will call 'Sankhara' and will change this fanfic's title accordingly. I will wait to finish this arc first to avoid confusion.
> 
> This particular arc should end next chapter, and once i post it I will make the necessary changes so if any reader is interested in reading further, you can subscribe to the series instead to get alerts for next arc once I'm ready to post the first chapter of that. There will be some related one-shots as well (the first will be written before I start next arc, too).

**Chapter 05: Patipatha**

Omnics were created to follow determinate protocols.

Back when all Omniums were still active, similar models could be built for different roles and had many intended purposes, so once a batch was complete, the individuals were sent off to various locations to fulfil their programming.

As they had been created to be self-improving, omnics grew by interacting and interfacing with the world surrounding them, in order to learn and become better at their pre-assigned jobs.

No one had expected that self-improving could lead omnics’ intelligence to grow enough to reach self-awareness, and through that, inquire about their place in the world, move past their original programming to be something else.

For many omnics, their programming remained an important part of their lives; they could expand their reach further, but accepted its constant presence and grew around it. Other omnics rejected their programming, seeking out to be something not defined by protocols assigned to them before their creation. Unfortunately, whether they accepted their programming or not, it did not disappear, and kept running in the background. Rejecting it was a long, hard process.

If Tekhartha had to look back –and he did so with reluctance, disliking to think about things he would have preferred to see gone from his memory logs– he would not be able to pinpoint the exact moment when his circuits differentiated between his programming and his ‘self’.

He remembered days that blended together one after the other, identical and dark, with little stimuli to use to grow. It was the perfect setup for a ‘machine’, yet not one in which to nurture a soul.

Thinking too far back seemed to trigger his programming into buzzing louder, so he rarely did, and yet…

There was a memory from ‘before’ that he remembered vividly.

A bird, perched on top of the wall outside of the storage room where he and the others resided. They had not needed better accommodations back then, not knowing any better, and no one had cared if they were comfortable or not. There was nothing distinctive in the room, no personal objects, no furniture, no colour. Even outside all they could see was cement and walls, nothing new or interesting.

The bird had been a novelty.

Tekhartha, at the time yet unnamed, had been only vaguely aware that there had been birds chirping somewhere outside of the compound, but had never seen them. The word ‘bird’ was associated to a notion, but no visuals to go with it. Most of the time, he could not hear them singing, nor did he care about distant noises.

That day, for some reason, the bird had moved from the trees to the edge of the wall and Tekhartha’s optical sensors had noticed it and chose to focus on it, puzzled by its appearance. It was tiny, and brown –nothing peculiar, nothing extravagant. It chirped for a bit, hopping along the edge of the wall, and then it was gone.

Tekhartha remembered about it, afterwards. In his mind, the image of the tiny bird was filed away in case it was needed, and when he’d heard chirping the following day, his synapsis made a connection between the tiny bird and the sound. From that point on, whenever he heard the distant singing, he focused on it.

Something existed outside of the building, outside of his repetitive existence, and the introduction of such a tiny fragment of _something_ made the difference. It was new, and the sound was pleasant to listen to, and it was tiny and _alive_ , it did not follow forced patterns or orders and Tekhartha could not expect it to sing every day at the same time, and… and…

Sometimes later, days or weeks after that he had no idea, Tekhartha’s brain flared up another connection –if that tiny bird could be alive, make sounds, fly and choose to leave, then maybe…

Whenever his programming flared back up, it was always difficult to force it back down. He had tried, time and time again, to distance himself from it.

It pushed Tekhartha’s own mind away, muddled his thoughts, made him feel like he was falling back, fading away into something primal and mechanic, not the being he had become afterwards.

It was scary.

Seeing Mondatta speak on the holovision had given Tekhartha a direction and a kindling of hope –that despite that, he could still do something and change. That change was not just for humans and creatures made of flesh and blood, and that robots and omnics could also change. That they were allowed to.

Tekhartha’s mind pushed his programming back into the background, and the street snapped into focus around him once again, his sensors whirring softly.

Wangdue was sitting on the ground a few feet away from him, one hand curled around the delicate wires of the unconscious omnic’s back, and Tekhartha tried not to focus on her. Worry curled inside his circuits, heavy like lead, but he could not let it dominate his mind, or else.

The mask on his face made it hard for Tekhartha to focus on what kind of expression Wangdue was making. His optical sensors recalibrated as they attempted to scan his face and failed over and over, but the tight purse of the man’s lips made it obvious he was as tense as Tekhartha, if not more.

Around them, the backstreet was empty.

With the departure of the other two men, Chi and Tenzin, Tekhartha’s chances of survival had grown exponentially, but that meant nothing –Wangdue had the upper hand as long as he held the omnic hostage… and they both knew it. Tekhartha did not want to see her harmed, while Wangdue had no particular investment in her safety. One way or another, she could be used against him.

It was an impasse, and a dangerous one.

While they waited, Chi and Tenzin were chasing down the runaway omnic and their companion, and if Tekhartha waited any longer, they would catch her before she could find help.

In a way, Mondatta’s plan had worked perhaps too well; he had hoped his speech would attract enough omnics for Tekhartha to find the ones he was seeking, and instead it had lured in a much bigger fish, and now that he’d caught it, he was left unprepared on how to deal with it.

“This… sucks.” Wangdue spoke, breaking the silence, and Tekhartha turned his attention to him. “I hoped we’d get to be quick. Catch these ones without a fuss then leave…” his fingers caressed the curve of the omnic’s wires, lips curling up in a sneer when Tekhartha visibly tensed. “You did a number on my mates, tin can. I’ll feel much better once I get my hands on your circuits”.

The threat sounded empty, but ominous nonetheless.

“Just twist my fingers inside your wires, hah? Rip them out one by one, figure which ways hurt you best,” the man continued, tone idle as if speaking about the weather. “Maybe zap you couple times, just to watch you seize up before–” he made a motion across his throat with his free hand.

Tekhartha’s attention was too focused on his other hand, still wrapped around delicate wires, to pay much attention to the intimidation Wangdue was attempting. It was nothing new to him –he had fought humans before who ran their mouths, both before and after he had started listening and recognising their words for what they were. Words were meant to hurt, shock and weaken, but Tekhartha was still safe, as long as he made sure not to get trapped.

There was not much to do, and he was not sure how he could twist the situation around so that he could gain the upper hand –enough to stall the man and free the hostage– but he had to try.

“You singled out these two omnics”. He kept his tone polite and even, knowing it had a chance to annoy the man. “You have masks to avoid facial-recognition software. This was a planned assault”.

There was a minute stiffening of the man’s shoulders, but his fingers did not move away from the omnic’s wires. Tekhartha idly wondered about her, and what her original designation had been.

“If you hoped to pass your attack as a simple anti-omnic action, you are mistaken. Mondatta is aware of your existence and what you are doing,” Tekhartha continued.

Wangdue’s expression tightened considerably. His fingers reached up to scratch at his chin. “You are lying,” he fired back, just as calm.

“I am not,” Tekhartha replied, fully conscious that he should not show his hand but aware that unless he destabilized the man, he would not be able to rescue the omnic. He kept his head still, but his optical sensors zoomed on his immediate surroundings, taking notice of what he had available around him. There were empty beer cans in a corner, but nothing he could use as a weapon other than the broken gun at his feet and the bits and pieces of the stunner he had stepped on earlier. “Mondatta has been aware of what you are doing for a while now, and had attempted to track you down already”. That was partially a lie, but Tekhartha did not care. “He might not know that you’re here, but the omnic who escaped will go to him, and then the guards will arrive to deal with you”.

Wangdue shuffled, obviously uncomfortable, but did not move away from the omnic.

Tekhartha calmly went through his options. The gun was close enough that if he shocked the man enough to retreat from the omnic, even if only a little, he would be able to hurl the gun at his head and then move before Wangdue could react…

It was hazardous, but there did not seem to be any way out of this impasse without an external aid which did not seem likely to come anytime soon.

He had no other options.

“I know you are seeking out every omnic of the Qinghai Omnium’s last batch,” he said, wires tensing up in preparation.

This did get him a reaction, though not one as severe as he had hoped. Wangdue looked visibly startled, and his fingers slipped out of the omnic’s wires, though his hand remained inches away from them, still too close for Tekhartha to move.

Even with his mask, it was obvious the man was rattled by Tekhartha’s casual remark. It was not something anyone could know, especially a random omnic they’d just met.

“What d’you–”

He had to gamble now.

“If you thought you were being subtle, you were mistaken,” he straightened his back, attempting to look imposing, though the distance between him and Wangdue probably negated that effect. “I am aware that you were the ones who stole that Omnium’s nuclear core, too”.

That _did_ give him the reaction he needed to act.

Wangdue was visibly startled by the accusation, mouth falling open in shock, and his body flinched back, hand closing into a fist as he made to stand up. He was angry, and that gave Tekhartha the opening he needed.

He dropped down on one knee. His hand was still shaking, but he wrapped it around the gun and rose up to his feet again, grateful when his grip did not falter.

He took a step forwards, calibrated the gun’s weight with his sensors, took one extra fraction of a second to make sure to aim correctly, then–

The gun sailed through the air and smashed into the side of Wangdue’s face, a little bit off from Tekhartha’s estimation due to his bad grip, but still… good enough.

Wangdue’s head snapped back and he stumbled, one hand clutching his face as he almost lost his balance, and cursed up a storm, taken aback.

Tekhartha did not waste any time –he rushed forwards, one hand outstretched in front of him, and in a few long strides he was in front of him. he grabbed Wangdue before he could regain his balance, and hit him on the side of the head, right on the temple.

As he had trouble controlling his own strength, he kept his palm open flat as he hit him, making sure to restrain himself.

Wangdue went down like a deflated balloon.

He barely made a sound, crumpling on the ground, and once there, he did not move.

Tekhartha released a soft huff, and slumped forwards a bit.

There was a flicker of dissatisfaction at the edge of his awareness as he looked down at Wangdue’s unconscious body, as he did not like harming others, but he felt justified since he had no way to force the situation down a pacific path.

He knelt next to Wangdue and checked his vitals first. His guilt was then soothed when he felt his heart beat, albeit irregularly, under the pad of his fingertip. Checking on the omnic took a little more time, because he had no idea what had been done to her, and her central pathways had been disrupted but not damaged.

She was offline, but to wire her back online would take a while, and he did not have time. Yet, he did not feel safe with leaving her alone in the street, even if Wangdue had been neutralised and was unconscious, but…

He heard footsteps from behind him and he spun around, ready to fight, only to see a familiar face peek from behind a corner before stepping into sight.

“… Li Wei?” his shoulders dropped in surprise at the sight of the postal worker, now out of his company regulated attire and wearing casual clothes.

Of all the people he’d expected to see, the man was not one of them.

Li Wei blinked slowly, eyes moving from Tekhartha’s face to the omnic at his feet, then at Wangdue, then back to Tekhartha.

“I… there was this omnic running, said someone attacked her,” Li Wei sounded hesitant, just like before. “I thought…” another quick glance to Wangdue, then he straightened his back and focused on Tekhartha. “Thought I could help or something, but looks like you fixed things up again ye?”

Tekhartha chuckled weakly, still jittery. “Yes, well… not really,” he paused, then stood up. “Would you mind keeping an eye on them? Her companion is still in danger, and I need to make sure she gets help”.

Startled out of his staring, Li Wei nodded and made his way towards him. “Sure thing! I was here, well. I mean,” he cleared his throat, “thought I’d come listen to that monk. Uh. Mondatta is it? Thought it was worth listening to”.

Tilting his head to the side, Tekhartha wondered why Li Wei was telling him this, if it had anything to do with their earlier meeting, as he hadn’t seemed like a person who cared much about omnic rights, then decided not to say anything and nodded, forehead array flaring up in his version of a smile.

“I am glad to hear that,” he said, making sure his tone conveyed the smile as well. “We met again sooner than I thought, and under no better circumstances, but your presence at Master Mondatta’s speech is very welcome”.

A small, weak smile graced Li Wei’s face. “I’ll make sure they’re looked after, pal,” the man said, kneeling near the omnic’s head. “Know nothing ‘bout wiring so I can’t help her, but I’ll wait here until someone arrives and then we’ll get these two out of here”.

“Thank you,” Tekhartha inclined his head. “I am also glad to see your arm seems to be fine now”.

Li Wei flexed his bicep. “All better! Don’t worry and go get those… whoever it is who did this?” he eyes Wangdue, eyes narrowed. “He’s… not gonna wake up is he?”

“I don’t think so, no,” Tekhartha looked down at his hand, fingers still shaking minutely. “I did not hit him too hard, but he will stay down for a while”.

With a parting wave, Tekhartha hurried down the street. His processors flared up to the front of his brain, analysing his surroundings. He had no idea where Tenzin and Chi were, or the third human at that.

Li Wei had not mentioned seeing anyone other than the omnic, so the men had made sure to keep out of sight, and that did not make the situation any better. Still, Tekhartha was free to chase them down now, and that would have to be good enough.

He ran back towards the park, sensors primed and ready just in case, but he found no one in the streets until he resurfaced outside. The crowds were still packed towards the podium, and a quick glance in that direction told him Mondatta had already finished his speech.

Tekhartha blinked, assessing the time. He had thought the entire encounter had been quick, and was thus surprised to see that more than half an hour had passed since he had seen the two omnics getting pushed into a side street. That had allowed Mondatta to finish his talk, though he could see guards still around, and many of the people gathered there still roaming about.

He glanced around, not sure what to do.

It was reasonable to think that the omnic had returned here where she could have called for help from one of the guards surrounding the area, or at least from one of the people attending the speech, as she had done with Li Wei, so Tekhartha located the neared guard and approached them.

“Excuse me”. The man looked at him, and his sharp look melted into something more muted at the sight of his garments. “Were there any problems during the speech?”

The man shook his head. “No, everything proceeded as it should, no interruptions whatsoever. Mondatta finished his speech and moved that way,” he pointed to the far end of the park, where the car had dropped them earlier. “If you were supposed to leave with him, he might still be waiting”.

Tekhartha nodded absently, worry growing inside him.

The guard had said nothing had disrupted the speech, but if anyone had reached out for their help the commotion should have been noticed, and that meant…

“Oh”.

The omnic had been intercepted before she could reach the park again, probably by the first man who’d chased her down, or worse –by someone else.

“There is a man down that road,” he said instead, trying to keep his voice even. “He has attempted to kidnap an omnic. He has been incapacitated, and is unconscious. There is a local postal worker keeping an eye on him and on the omnic, and I would be grateful if you could offer him some aid”.

The guard’s composure broke, and he blinked at him, eyes widening in surprise before he tapped the side of his neck and a hidden microphone extended around the curve of his ear. “Where did you say they are…?”

Tekhartha relayed the information about the side alley with clipped words, giving him the exact coordinates before rushing past him and through the park, wanting to reach Mondatta as soon as possible.

Having caught one of the men meant nothing, in the end –Wangdue would deny any involvement. If engaged, he would probably declare it to be an act of violence against omnics and refuse to name his accomplices, and that would be it. The rest of his group would keep going without him.

He had to catch the others, but he had no way of doing that unless… the guards flanking Mondatta would have the passwords for the local security cameras. If the other men were somewhere waiting for Wangdue and did not know yet that he had been caught, they would be careless. Four men pitted against two omnics… they were probably waiting somewhere with something bigger than a car. The area was guarded but omnics were heavy, so any transportation could not be parked too far, so suspicious vans could be spotted through security cameras…

Tekhartha just had to hurry.

The car waiting for them was still parked in the same place, but Mondatta was nowhere in sight. No guards around either, but there was a man waiting with his back pressed against the side of the car, and when Tekhartha got close enough, he looked up and straightened his back.

It took Tekhartha three steps to get to the car, and in that timespan, his processors flared up a warning. The man in front of him was not one of the guards that had accompanied Mondatta to the park, and they should have been the ones to get them back. There was tension in the man’s shoulders, but he appeared relaxed, an attempt to conceal something behind a mask of tranquillity. He was also dressed in normal, civilian clothes –not the attire of a guard, or of someone paid to escort Mondatta around.

Something must have betrayed Tekhartha’s hesitation, because the man’s lips pulled up in an empty smile. “Your master’s inside, you should hop on the car with him”.

Again, Tekhartha’s sensors sent a warning through him. The speech pattern was discordant with that of the guards before, his using ‘your master’ to speak about Mondatta when before the guards had used reverent terms to address him, his slightly slurred words betraying an accent that was not local…

“You are not part of the escort the city’s Mayor assigned to Master Mondatta”. He stopped, hands clenched into fists, shoulders squared.

He was taller than the man, and he was not afraid to shove him away from the car if possible.

“Nope, but there’s nothing you can do about that,” the man’s face remained twisted in fake cheer, but his tone was lower, more dangerous. “Unless you want us to take drastic measures to get you in… your choice”.

Tekhartha hesitated –if he acted now, he could slam the man against the car’s side, open the door and deal with whatever he found inside, hoping Mondatta had not been harmed… but he could not endanger him. Another option was to comply without a fuss, since he was impersonating a meek monk, at least in front of this man, and if he belonged to the same group that he’d faced in the backstreet, it would get him to the hideout and he could do something… but that, too, would place Mondatta in a position of danger. He could not involve Mondatta more than he had already, but he couldn’t do much to avoid it either since the men had targeted Mondatta on their own.

In the end, he clasped both hands together tightly, and bowed his head, forcing himself to appear deflated.

The man slid the car door open.

Mondatta was in the middle of the backseat, a man at his left blocking the other door, and another one sitting at the wheel. None of them were men Tekhartha had confronted earlier, which did not help at all. It would be ironic if two different anti-omnic groups had decided to converge in the same location, but if they _were_ part of the same organization, why would they target someone like Mondatta, who had nothing to do with Tekhartha’s Omnium?

Mondatta turned his head to look at him, and his fans picked up in volume. “Oh, there you are,” his voice oozed relief. “I was afraid you had been… harmed”.

“I am fine, Master Mondatta”.

“Get inside, _monk_ ,” the man behind him pushed hard against his back plate, and Tekhartha tilted his head forwards, fans whirring in distaste at the sudden, unwanted touch.

He slid inside the car and sat down at Mondatta’s side, and Mondatta immediately grabbed his hand in one of his own, almost as if to make sure he was alright. Behind him, the men closed the door shut and went to sit in the front.

‘This is rather… unexpected,’ Mondatta turned to look at the driver as the car pulled out of the parking and into the streets. ‘Alas, I have no idea how to proceed, as I have never been taken hostage before’.

Tekhartha’s fans clicked, a part of him wryly amused. He wondered what sort of inflection Mondatta would have had if he had been allowed to speak out loud rather than in binary.

‘While I am glad this has never happened before, it is happening now. Did they harm you?’

‘No, my dear, they have been strangely reluctant to touch me, but they made it clear I would not like it if they had to’.

Tekhartha felt a flicker of anger. ‘If they had tried to do anything–’ the hand around his own tightened considerably, and he stuttered into silence, chastised but not repentant. The binary bled away his viciousness, but he was pretty sure Mondatta had received the message clearly anyway.

Considering his options, he tugged his hand out of Mondatta’s grip and turned to look at the men in the front. “Why did you sequester Master Mondatta?” he asked. His voice shook slightly, and he hoped they would take it for fear, rather than for the anger it was.

The driver’s eyes flickered to the rear-view mirror, and Tekhartha watched his lips turn into a sneer. “Cans should stay quiet,” he mocked him, taking a turn to the right.

“The real guards will realise Master Mondatta and the car are both gone,” Tekhartha continued, keeping both hands on his lap. “This will stir up some trouble, and you” –recklessly, he decided to gamble once again– “are not wearing your masks, so your faces will be visible on camera recordings”.

It was a subtle nudge. Tekhartha could not know if the two were different groups or not, but as Mondatta’s speech had not been planned in advance, the chance was slim.

That would be a coincidence too big… so it could not be one.

It turned out there was truly no coincidence, as the driver tensed up, diverting his attention from the road to glare at him from the rear-end mirror, smirk gone. “What did you say?”

Tekhartha steadied himself, aware that he had the full attention of all four men and Mondatta as well. “You must be planning something different from your companions, as you do not appear to fear being recognised”.

‘Tekhartha–’

He heard a soft click coming from the side, and without turning his head, he twisted his optical sensors that way, finding the barrel of a gun pointed at him from Mondatta’s other side. The man’s face was twisted in visible anger.

“What do you know?”

Mondatta looked at Tekhartha, then at the gun that was in front of him, then at the man at his side. He appeared calm and unmovable, but his fans were whirring loudly and Tekhartha felt a sliver of guilt for scaring him.

“Put that thing away, Qiu! We don’t want anyone seeing that!” the driver did not turn around, barking an order to the man in the back while making a sharp turn, and Tekhartha made sure to keep registering their position for future reference. “You! Answer! We’re not going to keep bein’ nice any longer!”

Tekhartha waited for a few seconds, the silence in the car stretching on, before Qiu finally snapped his head to the side and pulled the gun back on his lap, hiding it with the corner of his jacket.

Mondatta visibly relaxed, and Tekhartha sighed, processors more at ease without the weapon trained on him.

“Your companions that were dispatched to seize two omnics earlier met unexpected resistance,” Tekhartha decided to say, keeping his tone even. He would let them draw their own conclusions from that.

The men in the front exchanged a glance, then the one not driving rummaged in his jacket for a phone. Tekhartha’s optical sensors zoomed on the display, but there was a name there and no number.

After a tense moment, someone picked up the call, and the man cleared his voice. “Oi, how’d the retrieval go?” a few seconds ticked by, and Tekhartha saw him visibly tense. “… I see”.

“What’s wrong, Dequan?” Qiu asked, casting a wary glance at Tekhartha. “What happened?”

“Chi and Tenzin say they got in a fight with a monk,” Dequan twisted around in his seat to glare at Tekhartha. “Hui’s fine and they got one of the omnics but Wangdue’s not there”.

“ _Shit_ –” Qiu’s hands was shaking in anger as he gripped the handle of the gun in his fingers, but he did not point it at Tekhartha, though it was a close call. “If you killed–”

“I’m going to snap your wires the moment we get off this car,” Dequan said, phone still held against his ear. He was listening to someone on the other side. “How dare…”

“Neither of you will do anything”.

Both men turned to look at the driver, surprised but hesitant to speak up, and Tekhartha noted that he seemed to be the appointed leader of the group.

“But Shui…”

“Don’t care what he did, but we can’t hurt these two, we need to wait until we’re done with using them,” Shui kept his eyes on the road, but his voice was deceptively calm. “Then I think Tenzin will want to do the job himself”.

Qiu barked out a laugh but settled back on his seat, pacified. He nudged Mondatta’s side with an elbow, startling him a bit. “Heard the man? Your little servant’s fine for now, but not for long! Your stupid face is gonna get us famous–”

“Shut up, Qiu!”

“W _hy_?” Qiu crossed his arms, thankfully sliding his weapon back in his jacket, “I want them to _know_ that they’re goin’ to make us into heroes–”

“Shit’s changed, that’s why, don’t tell me you weren’t watching the news today.” It felt like an argument they were debating whose start Tekhartha and Mondatta had not been there to witness, but it seemed like Shui’s words struck a chord, because Qiu fell silent, looking a little pale, and neither spoke again as the car continued moving through the traffic towards an as of yet unknown destination.

Seeing as they would not receive an explanation anytime soon, Mondatta reached out with his hand to grasp Tekhartha’s one again. ‘So I had reason to worry about you, my dear,’ he said, even quieter than before. ‘It seems we reeled in a far greater fish than we had expected, but are you alright? Were you harmed?’

‘No,’ he answered, but kept it at that, not wanting to tell Mondatta about his own lapse of control. ‘I am sorry you were involved. If I had the choice, I would have allowed them to take me alone’.

‘And then you would not be able to do anything,’ Mondatta chided him, squeezing his hand to convey what his tone could not. ‘My presence seems to be a catalyst, but we do not know for what yet, but I would not wish this on you alone. I am by your side, so you are not to face this by yourself’.

‘The will of the Iris did not compel you to put yourself on harm’s way just to help me, though,’ Tekhartha wished he could speak out loud, but he knew the situation was too dangerous to try and strike up a conversation that way. He was grateful the men did not know they could communicate with binary code, or they would have been restricted from that too.

‘No, the Iris guides my path, but does not force me to walk one way or another. It is my own will that binds me by your side, my dear, as I feel you need guidance’.

Startled but trying not to make any visible movement, Tekhartha looked down at the bracelet around his wrist, and then at their joined hands, his fans stuttering quietly in the silence of the car.

_‘I do,’_ he thought, not daring to speak anymore for fear that his binary would falter, becoming loud enough to be heard.

He wondered, quietly, if Mondatta could truly help him, and then he wondered whether they would be able to come out unscathed from this situation, or if he would become known, in the future, as the omnic who had caused the great Tekhartha Mondatta’s death.

For the duration of the ride, they did not speak anymore, each of them lost in thought.

***

The car ride took Mondatta and Tekhartha to a lesser trafficked part of Xiaguan, further away from Cheng’s apartment area and the park.

Tekhartha observed the city outside with growing worry, but tried to keep the uncertainty at bay; he was afraid, more for Mondatta than for himself –if push came to shove, Tekhartha could fight, even if he disliked the notion of letting himself drop into his programming, while Mondatta as a pacifist, would not.

As he could do nothing else, he analysed over and over the words their captors had spoken to try and understand a little more of what they had planned for them.

It was clear none of them knew that Tekhartha was one of the omnics they were seeking, so the target of the attack had been Mondatta to begin with –and only because of the impromptu speech. If he had kept quiet, they would not have known he was in Xiaguan, so… Tekhartha was responsible for his capture.

They were planning on using Mondatta, but he had no idea why –and their plans had changed for some reason. Tekhartha had very little to work on, mostly speculations and wild guesses, and while his gambling had been correct before, he could not keep baiting people hoping it would give him hints.

When the car swerved into an empty parking lot, Tekhartha found himself tensing up instantly, optical sensors flickering around, not knowing what to expect. In the back of his mind, his programming sent tendrils of data up, assessing the situation, and he hesitated for a second before allowing it.

There was a rather big, unassuming truck parked in the farthest corner of the lot, and two smaller, dark vans flanking it, and even though he was not sure why, Tekhartha was almost sure there were people waiting inside them.

He was right. As their car stopped next to one of the vans, its backdoor slid open to reveal two men. Much to Tekhartha’s displeasure, one of them was Hui, the one who had left first to chase the second omnic.

“… doesn’t look like much,” Hui muttered to himself, eyeing Tekhartha up and down, then glanced at Mondatta before dismissing him. “No problems with them?”

“Nah,” Shui carelessly dropped the car’s keys on the ground and walked towards the truck while Qiu and Dequan got Mondatta and Tekhartha to step out of the car. “Where are Tenzin and Chi?”

Hui poked towards the other van with a thumb. “Better keep them away from this one for now, Chi’s famous for his temper”.

“Then let’s keep it that way,” Shui called out. “Quick, we’re leaving for Xining as soon as they’re all settled up”.

Tekhartha’s head snapped his way, startled at the mention of his old city.

“Where do we shove ‘em? I don’t trust them with the other omnics but we don’t have space in the vans”.

“Then you’ll go with them on the truck,” Shui brushed him off. “We won’t disable them but if _that_ one acts up,” he motioned for Tekhartha, “you can hurt them a bit… it’ll sell the act better”.

Tekhartha tensed up and placed himself in front of Mondatta, as if trying to protect him. He felt Mondatta’s hand against his lower back. His action had the men around them laughing, the sound mocking him to the point he almost moved to attack, his programming subtly nudging him forwards–

‘No, it will not help,’ Mondatta's voice stopped him, binary clashing against his processes, ‘we need to find out what their aim is, and you would only get hurt against so many opponents. Please, desist’.

Tekhartha stuttered and deflated, accepting Mondatta’s words. He felt high-wired and tense and the mocking tone in the men’s voices grated to his nerves, but Mondatta was right. They were already neck deep in this, but defeating a bunch of these men would not solve anything. There were more of them somewhere else, holding hostage his batchmates, and cutting their only link to find them would prevent Tekhartha from helping.

Besides… he had to keep Mondatta safe, first and foremost.

Hui grumbled a bit as they escorted Tekhartha and Mondatta towards the trunk, sliding the door of the back open to reveal a mostly empty cargo and the bodies of ten omnics slumped in a corner like lifeless scraps. Tekhartha fought the urge to rush to them, aware that they were probably in the same situation as the one he had rescued in the alley and attempting to revive them would be useless at the moment.

Mondatta was behind him, and as they got into the truck Hui shoved them away from the other omnics without even sparing them a glance.

“If they give you trouble, use your stunner until they learn,” Shui did not seem to consider them a threat, and much to Tekhartha’s displeasure, they truly were not. “It’s a long way to Xining, but we’ll stop often and someone will switch places with you”.

Hui nodded, waving the other man away. Soon enough the truck’s door slid shut, trapping them inside. The only light came from the tiny openings on the top half of the truck, which cast weird shadows on the empty area.

It did not take long for the truck’s engine to start, so Mondatta sat down against one side of the truck, resigned to spend more time waiting. The idea of having his brothers and sisters lying unattended and discarded where he could see them but could not help was like a wound in the front of his mind, but Mondatta knew better than to attempt to help them, for the present moment. If he got hurt, not only would Tekhartha be left on his own, but their chances to help the rest of the omnics would reduce drastically. He knew that, and yet he could not stop himself from glancing towards the omnics ever so often, longing to reach out to them to make sure they were alright.

Tekhartha glanced at Hui, hands clenched into fists, then sat down next to Mondatta, feeling helpless and upset but aware just as much as Mondatta was that they had to thread carefully.

“I am sorry, Master Mondatta,” he murmured, low enough that Hui would not care to hear. He wanted Mondatta to understand just how much he regretted it all –dragging him down such a dangerous road, having to rely on his help, and then causing his kidnapping… meeting with Tekhartha had apparently caused Mondatta nothing but trouble.

Mondatta hummed, his attention still on the omnics far from them. Tekhartha winced, recognising the tension in Mondatta’s body. “I just…”

“I find myself tiring of your constant attempts to blame yourself for things you cannot control, Tekhartha,” Mondatta’s voice startled him, fans whirring louder in surprise. “I understand you feel guilty, but in shouldering the decision of someone else as if it was your own, its hollow weight will wear you down, eventually, if you persist in carrying it on your own”.

“But–”

“Would you leave someone be if you found they needed help, and no one else could?”

“… no, of course I wouldn’t–”

“Then, wouldn’t you do your best, even if it might lead you to danger?”

“… _yes_ , but–”

“So, you should accept that it was my decision, not yours, that led me here. Whatever happens, I chose to be here, just as you did when you realised your mates were in danger and you did not look the other way. The weight of your decisions is heavy enough without having to worry about that of others’, Tekhartha, so always consider that you are not responsible for everything that happens around you”. Mondatta caressed the side of Tekhartha’s face with one hand, the touch gentle against his metal. “Be at ease, my dear, as we have a long trip ahead of us, and if you stay tense you will not be ready when the time comes”.

It was clear Mondatta considered the subject closed, because he offered him a last, dismissive pat on the cheek before he returned his attention to the omnics piled just out of his reach.

Tekhartha deflated and accepted his defeat. There was nothing he could do to ease his guilt, and no amount of reassurance from Mondatta could change that, but he had to accept that Mondatta was his own person, and nothing Tekhartha could say would sway him one way or the other.

“If you’re finished with your stupid show, you can shut up before I’m tempted to teach you how to be quiet,” Hui spoke up, startling Tekhartha.

He was idly typing something on his phone, but as he spoke he looked up at them, hand tapping against the pocket of his jacket where the stunner was.

“What is it that you are trying to accomplish with this?” Tekhartha tested him, speaking up. “Master Mondatta is a public figurehead, and his kidnapping will be noticed and investigated”.

Hui snorted, crossing his arms. “We’re gonna make everyone see that you’re just junk that needs to be thrown away, that’s what we’re gonna say”.

“That is not what many think,” Tekhartha fired back, fingers idly playing with his bracelet. The gesture was quickly becoming some sort of stress-relief for him. “Capturing so many omnics and then the leader of a pacific group will not grant you any sort of leeway, that much should be obvious”.

With a sneer that made it obvious how he knew more than they did, Hui tapped his foot on the floor of the truck, the noise echoing in the empty chamber. “Don’t give a shit who everybody think you defected bots are, by the time we’re done with you, everybody will listen to what _we_ say, not whatever shit you lied about until now!”

“There were no lies,” Tekhartha felt his insides twist, circuits humming quietly as he tried to suppress his anger. “The Shambali believe in peace–”

Hui did not let him finish, repeating his words in a mocking tone until Tekhartha fell silent, then sneered at him. “Just shut the fuck up and be quiet before I decide it’s ok to play kick the can”.

Clenching his hand around the beads of his bracelet, Tekhartha thought prudent to cut off his voice box completely, which would prevent him from engaging the man’s threat. At his side, Mondatta remained sitting, and after a few seconds, the lights of his forehead array dimmed slightly, and Mondatta started to meditate, leaving Tekhartha alone with his thoughts.

***

It was in the earlier hours of Wednesday afternoon that Tekhartha’s tracking system alerted him the truck had reached its destination.

The ride had taken them over a day with barely any stops, and just as Shui had said before they left Xiaguan, Hui had been relieved of the job after the first handful of hours, leaving behind first a man Tekhartha had not met before, and after that Shui himself.

The nameless man who took up the job of guarding them from Hui had been far less accommodating, threatening them boldly and with an almost constant sneer on his face. Things had escalated to the point where the man had stomped over to tower over them to appear more imposing, enjoying his perceived position of superiority and calling them every possible insult he could think to try and get a reaction out of them so he could use his stunner.

He waved the weapon under Tekhartha’s face, flickering the switch on and barking a laughter in his face when Tekhartha had flinched away from him, only to do the same to Mondatta.

Mondatta had dealt with the man’s taunts by maintaining a calm, collected exterior –he barely looked at him, his attention still on the other omnics, and after a while Tekhartha had ended up shutting down his auricular receptors so he would not react to the man.

Seeing as his attempts did not get him the reaction he hoped, the man had decided to switch tactics, and had attempted to move to where the unconscious omnics were. Tekhartha did react, then –he stood up and stretched to his full height, cracking his knuckles. The man was shorter than him by a good head, and rather thin, and when he realised that the only thing keeping Tekhartha quiet was not fear of him or his stunner, he had backed away from them in a haste, losing in an instant all his ornery attitude.

He switched over with Shui rather quickly, after that.

Cramped, worried and tense despite Mondatta’s constant attempts to get him to rest, Tekhartha could only wait, unable to go through a sleep cycle for the entire duration of the trip to Xining.

The next time the truck stopped, it took his tired sensors a little to realise the break longer than normal. His inner processors recalibrated, but the coordinates indicated they were still far from Xining.

After around thirty minutes where Tekhartha tried not to fidget, the truck doors slid open and three unidentified men pushed two more omnics inside, shoving them with little care on the pile with the other ten. They moved quickly, ignoring Mondatta and Tekhartha, and left without looking back.

The sight made his anger sparkle up again, but Tekhartha looked down at his hands and counted the notches on his bracelet’s beads until he was calmer, barely noticing Shui’s frown until the man stood up and followed the others outside the truck.

“There should have been five,” Tekhartha heard him speak. “Did you have trouble finding the rest?”

“One was terminated ‘n sold for scraps,” one of the men said with a shrug. “One’s ran away and we got no idea where it went. Last one was sold over to the Sun Yee On, and I didn’t want to ask no more”.

Tekhartha refrained from reacting to the man’s casual words, although he knew the probability of any of them realising he belonged to that batch was next to zero, but felt acutely aware of Mondatta’s presence at his side, and refused to turn towards him.

“Well, no matter, this wraps it up. We got all the ones we could grab and that’s enough,” Shui’s voice sounded satisfied. “Warn the others that we got the extra loot and we can proceed”.

“Where to?” another voice piped up,  sounding curious. “We didn’t get to hear nothing, we were busy scrambling to get these last two”.

Shui lowered his voice, but Tekhartha could still hear him, and he leaned forwards a bit, instantly curious. “There were some… changes to the plan due to the news”.

A few seconds of silence, then one of the men whistled softly. “Ye, heard that too,” from inside the truck, Tekhartha wondered what kind of face they were pulling. “Didn’t plan for it to look like that”.

“We’ve been careless,” Dequan’s voice joined the others. “Didn’t think it would be that devastating…”

“Did you see the report? They were trying to get in contact with cities on the coast but most people are worried about the radiation,” another unknown voice. “That core was bigger than the one we got, but… Shui, we’re not about to do that anymore right? I don’t want to…” his voice died in an awkward swallow, then continued in a hiss, “I don’t wanna die for that scum! They’re talking like the omnics were right all along, like the ALF were _wrong_!”

Tekhartha whipped his head to look at Mondatta, and found the same shock reflected in his posture, LED array flickering in and out of brightness.

‘They want to–’

Mondatta’s hand gripped his leg, and Tekhartha realised he had been about to stand up, processors rushing thorough calculations and calibrations, already set to run out and fight his way through the men standing outside the truck.

The frantic, incredulous fear he had felt when the Australian Omnium had exploded returned even stronger than before as Tekhartha finally realised the depths of whatever these men were attempting to do.

Speaking so casually about setting off yet another nuclear explosion, this time in the middle of a populated city…

“No,” Shui’s voice cut through Tekhartha’s panic like a blade, stilling him. “Of course not. That… that sort of thing is beneath us and there’s enough talk about the omnics now that it would not work. We’re not going to destroy ourselves or what we believe into! The plan has changed, but you were not here for the debriefing, that’s all”.

There were a few sighs of relief, and Tekhartha echoed them, slumping back down against Mondatta, feeling weak and electrified.

‘I…’ but what Mondatta was about to say would have to wait, because Shui cleared his throat and spoke again.

He sounded like he was trying to appear secure of himself, but the subject of the Australian nuclear explosion had rattled even these men, and for a split second Tekhartha was grateful that they would not go through that plan anymore, relief making him almost dizzy.

“There will be no explosion –we’ll get rid of the core later, but that’s why we got our prized scapegoat right there. The monk is a big deal, and we’ll make sure our mates in Australia did not die in vain”.

“What d’you mean, Shui?”

“We can’t set off the core anymore –the explosion would be… too big, we wouldn’t get out in time and too many people would die who don’t deserve it. But we can work around it and make sure the world blames the omnics for this. Whatever outcry they got after Australia blew up will be nothing when Tekhartha Mondatta is caught setting up an explosion at the museum here in Xining, and I tell you, nobody will give a shit about omnics after that”.

The other men made some impressed sounds at that, while Tekhartha turned to look at Mondatta, suddenly aware that even if a second nuclear fallout was not going to happen, something equally bad might instead.

‘I fear the situation might be more complicated than I had expected,’ Mondatta looked over to the omnics in the corner, his longing to reach for them palpable enough that Tekhartha felt worried he would give up and run to them now that they knew more about the group’s plans.

‘We still do not know where the other omnics are,’ he hesitated, then ‘I can make it so you can run away, and then you could alert someone or–’

Unfortunately for him, Shui returned inside the truck then. There was a different air around him, and Tekhartha felt wary all of sudden. He could read people, the way they moved, or spoke, and he could _tell_ that Shui looked more intent now –as if his purpose had been renewed, now that all the omics they had gathered were together and all was left to do was proceed with their plan. There was tension on his brow, and his shoulders were pushed forwards, almost defensively, but the upwards curl of his lips was that of satisfaction. When his eyes fell on Tekhartha and Mondatta, the curl became a full blown smirk.

“There is no real reason to keep it from you now that we’re almost there,” he said. He sounded pleased, gloating. “Isn’t like it’s not your fault for trying to make people believe you omnics are anything but tools for war, innit? We’re just fighting back now, taking what’s ours so you can’t… _soil_ it”.

Tekhartha looked up from where he was sitting next to Mondatta and met Shui’s eyes with his own optical sensors.

The sheer security oozing off of the human’s body was unpleasant. It reeked of malice and anger, but most of all, he _believed_ what he was saying. There was no understanding there to be gained, no reason to even try and make him change his mind –these men, the entire group, whatever they were called… they believed in their cause. It did not matter to them that omnics could think or talk, or that somewhere in the world, some had banded together under a different, pacific belief that omnics had souls, and had a right to exist.

None of these men believed it, and in their belief, they were fully convinced to be right.

Facing that man, and by proxy, the organization he was part of, Tekhartha found again the same look of disdain and lack of concern he had seen, time and time again, in the faces of the people who had owned him before.

The eyes of someone who looked at him not as a creature with equal potential and an unfulfilled destiny to seek for themselves, but as something inferior and inhuman.

What Shui saw when he looked at Tekhartha was, for all intents and purposes, not unlike a piece of motherboard for a computer, or less than that, a metallic trash can.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It was not the first time Tekhartha faced people like that, who looked at him, at omnics like him, and did not see the mind underneath the exterior, but the ache that rattled through his core never lost its edge, no matter how many times it happened. An ache that was equal parts anger, resentment and sadness.

“How can you look at us, talk with us, and yet see no error in your ways?” the words lingered between them, heavy and loaded, his tone thick with disappointment, but all he got in answer was Shui’s smirk fading into a disgusted grimace.

“ _We_ made you,” he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “We’re just fixing that mistake”.

He got off the truck, and seconds later the door was closed again, this time leaving Tekhartha and Mondatta alone in the cargo with the other omnics. Tekhartha had no idea if Shui did not care what happened now that they were so close to ‘victory’ or if he simply thought they could do nothing now, but they were alone.

Mondatta slowly stood up, joints creaking after so long without moving, and as the truck rumbled and started moving again, destination unknown, he said nothing as he finally moved to the heap of unconscious omnics, kneeling at their sides.

With slow, careful motions, he assembled their unresponsive bodies so they were laying one next to the other rather than in a single pile, offering them a modicum of respect.

He ran diagnostic after diagnostic, assessing their health, while Tekhartha moved restlessly from one side of the cargo to the other, looking through every tiny fissure in the truck’s walls to see where they were headed.

He knew the coordinates, but his knowledge of the city was patchy at best, as back then he was still following his original programming and had not gained self-awareness. What he could see was not helpful. They were passing by what appeared to be a trafficked street, the truck slowed down by surrounding cars and pedestrians. In the distance, all he could see were tall skyscrapers, not a single familiar sight.

Outside of the truck, no one had any idea what was going to happen, or the kind of danger this nameless anti-omnic faction was going to put the city through, and Tekhartha wondered, once again, what he would be able to do, all on his own.

“Tekhartha…?”

Twisting his head to look at Mondatta, who was holding one of the omnics up against his chest, Tekhartha banished that train of thought from his mind. “Yes…?”

Then he noticed the lights on the forehead array of the omnic Mondatta was holding flicker, and in a flash he was at their sides, feeling a flutter of relief inside his core.

“hhhhhrrrr–” the omnic’s voice box crackled with static, but the array forehead burned brightly, and when the omnic’s slanted optical sensors moved from Mondatta to Tekhartha, body tensing up, they were both ready to reassure her with soft murmurs, Tekhartha’s hand wrapped around the omnic’s one.

“Please do not speak, your voice box might be damaged and it will only get worse,” Mondatta helped the omnic shuffle up into a sitting position. “Are you able to switch over to binary?”

A soft, hesitant nod. Then, ‘What… happened?’ unlike Tekhartha before, even the omnic’s binary was a bit offset, which implied the damage done to her was deeper than a simple disconnection, but Mondatta had no way to help at the moment.

While Mondatta explained the omnic the situation they were in, Tekhartha moved to the other omnics, checking them out as Mondatta had done earlier. Some of them could be woken up, but he had no idea if they would be in pain, so he chose not to.

‘Why did you…’ the omnic twisted a little to stare at Tekhartha, ‘You could have escaped, but you chose to stay and get caught’.

“Then I would be safe, but you would still be here, and these people would still go through their plan, only that there would be no one to help,” Tekhartha absently stood up and returned to Mondatta’s side. “We are somewhere in an area with a high concentration of people. Whatever they have planned to do might end up catching a lot of attention simply because of that”.

“There is nothing we can do right now, other than wait,” Mondatta sighed. “There are only twelve of you here, and you said there were over seventy from your batch, is that correct?”

“Seventy-three,” Tekhartha nodded. “Even considering they might have missed some of us during their hunting, the ones on this truck are too few to be all that is left of our batch, so the majority is probably held elsewhere… maybe in other trucks converging wherever they’re taking us. We cannot do anything until we know all of us are in the same place, and even then, if most of them are offline, we will not be able to simply wake them all up and run…”

‘I am sorry to say I have a hard time keeping my thoughts in a straight line,’ the omnic interjected. There was no inflection in her binary, but the slumped shoulders said everything about her dejection. ‘I don’t know much about self-defense, so I don’t think I could help’.

“It’s fine, it would be unfair to ask you to help when you have been unconscious for… weeks, perhaps? Where did they take you?”

‘Ah. I am Dawa. I was working for the Chengdu Panda base when I was abducted… oh my job, I hope they did not think I ditched them…’ her binary broke into silence, and she wheezed out a long, garbled static noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob.

“It will be fine,” Tekhartha reached out with his hand to pat her shoulder. “You will go back there soon, where you belong”.

She nodded, her array flickering softly, then the truck swerved to the side and came to a sudden, unexpected halt.

Freezing in place, Tekhartha and Mondatta exchanged a quick glance. “Pretend you are offline again,” Tekhartha told Dawa in a hushed whisper, afraid that now that the truck was still they would be heard. “We will keep talking in binary so you can hear us, but if possible be prepared. We don’t know what is going to happen”.

While it was obvious she did not like the idea, she nodded and slumped back down on the floor of the truck, her forehead array fading to nothing. Mondatta, albeit reluctantly, got up and moved away from her and the other unconscious omnics and Tekhartha remained standing, not knowing what to do with himself.

“We… we are going to find a way out of this,” Tekhartha told Mondatta, and himself, and Dawa, and even the unconscious omnics. “Somehow”.

Mondatta’s dry chuckle was his only answer before the doors of the truck slid open once again and Shui’s face peeked inside, mouth twisted in a derisive sneer.

“Get out,” he ordered them, waving his hand so they could see he was holding a stunner. “keep up your good behaviour for a bit longer so I don’t have to drag any more heavy metal rejects around”.

Tekhartha clenched his hands into fists but moved to the edge of the truck, peeking out.

In front of him was the Xining Museum of Omnic War History in all its massive, oversized glory.

“… oh”.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Glossary:**
> 
> _Patipatha (Pali) -_ a confronting road.  
>  _Sun Yee On -_ a rather large syndacate belonging to the Chinese Triads, criminal organizations scattered all over China, which branch out internationally. Most Triads originate in Hong Kong and Taiwan but have members in both mainland China and overseas. Sun Yee On is by far the largest group, with over 55k members. There is no particular reason I chose this one, expect for its size and fame. Sun Yee On means 'New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild'. By this point in time, this organization has grown esponentially and has extended its reach to include omnics and robotics as well as their more common crimes.


End file.
